Academic Commons Search Resultshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog.rss?f%5Bsubject_facet%5D%5B%5D=Individual+and+family+studies&q=&rows=500&sort=record_creation_date+desc
Academic Commons Search Resultsen-usBasic Facts about Low-income Children, Children 6 through 11 Years, 2013http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:182937
Jiang, Yang; Ekono, Mercedes M.; Skinner, Curtishttp://dx.doi.org/10.7916/D8GF0SBVFri, 13 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000Children under 18 years represent 23 percent of the population, but they comprise 33 percent of all people in poverty. Among all children, 44 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (22 percent) live in poor families. Similarly, among children in middle childhood (age 6 through 11 years), 45 percent live in low-income families and 22 percent live in poor families. Being a child in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. Parental education and employment, race/ethnicity, and other factors are associated with children experiencing economic insecurity. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socioeconomic, and employment characteristics of children in middle childhood and their parents. It highlights the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children in this age group from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Demography, Social structure, Individual and family studiesyj2293, mme2130, dcs45National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBasic Facts about Low-income Children, Children under 3 Years, 2013http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:182943
Jiang, Yang; Ekono, Mercedes M.; Skinner, Curtishttp://dx.doi.org/10.7916/D8ZG6R2TFri, 13 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000Children under 18 years represent 23 percent of the population, but they comprise 33 percent of all people in poverty. Among all children, 44 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (22 percent) live in poor families. Our very youngest children – infants and toddlers under age 3 years – appear to be particularly vulnerable, with 47 percent living in low-income families, including 25 percent living in poor families. Being a child in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. Parental education and employment, race/ethnicity, and other factors are associated with children experiencing economic insecurity. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of children and their parents. It highlights important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Demography, Social structure, Individual and family studiesyj2293, mme2130, dcs45National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBasic Facts about Low-income Children, Children under 6 Years, 2013http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:182946
Jiang, Yang; Ekono, Mercedes M.; Skinner, Curtishttp://dx.doi.org/10.7916/D8PZ57MRFri, 13 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000Children under 18 years represent 23 percent of the population, but they comprise 33 percent of all people in poverty. Among all children, 44 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (22 percent) live in poor families. Young children under age 6 years appear to be particularly vulnerable, with 48 percent living in low-income and 25 percent living in poor families. Being a child in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. Parental education and employment, race/ethnicity, and other factors are associated with children experiencing economic insecurity. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of young children and their parents. It highlights important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children in this age group from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Demography, Social structure, Individual and family studiesyj2293, mme2130, dcs45National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBasic Facts about Low-income Children, Children 12 through 17 Years, 2013http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:182934
Jiang, Yang; Ekono, Mercedes M.; Skinner, Curtishttp://dx.doi.org/10.7916/D87W6B11Fri, 13 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000Children under 18 years represent 23 percent of the population, but they comprise 33 percent of all people in poverty. Among all children, 44 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (22 percent) live in poor families. Among our oldest children – adolescents age 12 through 17 years – 41 percent live in low-income families and 19 percent live in poor families. Being a child in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. Parental education and employment, race/ethnicity, and other factors are associated with children experiencing economic insecurity. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of adolescents and their parents. It highlights the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children in this age group from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Demography, Social structure, Individual and family studiesyj2293, mme2130, dcs45National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBasic Facts about Low-income Children, Children under 18 Years, 2013http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:182940
Jiang, Yang; Ekono, Mercedes M.; Skinner, Curtishttp://dx.doi.org/10.7916/D870807CFri, 13 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000Children under 18 years represent 23 percent of the population, but they comprise 33 percent of all people in poverty. Among all children, 44 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (22 percent) live in poor families. Being a child in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. Parental education and employment, race/ethnicity, and other factors are associated with children experiencing economic insecurity. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of children and their parents. It highlights the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Demography, Social structure, Individual and family studiesyj2293, mme2130, dcs45National Center for Children in PovertyReportsTeens and improvised spaces; A study of appropriation of outdoor placeshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:175550
Ver, Ellahttp://dx.doi.org/10.7916/D898855XThu, 10 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000In contemporary cities, teenagers have been excluded from public open spaces through design and policy. This study examines design as a form of control that induces users' behavior in space through formal and informal rules. These rules limit acceptable actions that can be conducted in spaces. This study thus asks, “what can we learn from teens’ use of open space? How can we facilitate creativity and freedom within the realm of designed space? It explores behavior through observations, interviews, and site drawings in three appropriated spaces in the Bay Area of California: a stairwell, a public plaza, and a convenience store parking lot. It includes the researcher’s reflections about her interactions with the teens involved and the effect of her personal identity on the outcomes. The study hypothesizes that teens' reasons for appropriating these places include a combination of exclusion from open spaces by socially dominant groups and the users’ need to express independence. This hypothesis was only partially supported by findings. Teenage users expressed feelings of belonging and ownership in these places and exhibited creative ways of using the built environment. This study demonstrates that the fields of design, planning, and policy can better serve this population by relaxing their control of users and of the built environment to allow for more creativity, freedom, and active appropriation.Urban planning, Sociology, Individual and family studiesev2303Urban PlanningMaster's thesesBasic Facts about Low-income Children, Children 6 through 11 Years, 2012http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:173056
Jiang, Yang; Ekono, Mercedes M.; Skinner, Curtishttp://dx.doi.org/10.7916/D8T43R5BWed, 16 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000Children under 18 years represent 23 percent of the population, but they comprise 34 percent of all people in poverty. Among all children, 45 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (22 percent) live in poor families. Similarly, among children age 6 through 11 years in middle childhood, 45 percent live in low-income families and 22 percent live in poor families. Being a child in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. Parental education and employment, race/ethnicity, and other factors are associated with children's experience of economic insecurity. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socio-economic, and employment characteristics of children in middle childhood and their parents. It highlights the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children in this age group from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Demography, Social structure, Individual and family studiesyj2293, mme2130, dcs45National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBasic Facts about Low-income Children, Children under 6 Years, 2012http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:173065
Jiang, Yang; Ekono, Mercedes M.; Skinner, Curtishttp://dx.doi.org/10.7916/D8DV1GZ3Wed, 16 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000Children under 18 years represent 23 percent of the population, but they comprise 34 percent of all people in poverty. Among all children, 45 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (22 percent) live in poor families. Young children under age 6 years appear to be particularly vulnerable, with 48 percent living in low- income and 25 percent living in poor families. Being a child in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. Parental education and employment, race/ethnicity, and other factors are associated with children’s experience of economic insecurity. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of young children and their parents. It highlights important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children in this age group from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Demography, Social structure, Individual and family studiesyj2293, mme2130, dcs45National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBasic Facts about Low-income Children, Children under 3 Years, 2012http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:173062
Jiang, Yang; Ekono, Mercedes M.; Skinner, Curtishttp://dx.doi.org/10.7916/D8JM27PTWed, 16 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000Children under 18 years represent 23 percent of the population, but they comprise 34 percent of all people in poverty. Among all children, 45 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (22 percent) live in poor families. Our very youngest children - infants, and toddlers under age 3 years - appear to be particularly vulnerable, with 48 percent living in low-income families, including 25 percent living in poor families. Being a child in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. Parental education and employment, race/ethnicity, and other factors are associated with children's experience of economic insecurity. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of children and their parents. It highlights important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Demography, Social structure, Individual and family studiesyj2293, mme2130, dcs45National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBasic Facts about Low-income Children, Children 12 through 17 Years, 2012http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:173059
Jiang, Yang; Ekono, Mercedes M.; Skinner, Curtishttp://dx.doi.org/10.7916/D8PC30F0Wed, 16 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000Children under 18 years represent 23 percent of the population, but they comprise 34 percent of all people in poverty. Among all children, 45 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (22 percent) live in poor families. Among our oldest children, adolescents age 12 through 17 years, 41 percent live in low-income families and 19 percent live in poor families. Being a child in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. Parental education and employment, race/ethnicity, and other factors are associated with children’s experience of economic insecurity. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of adolescents and their parents. It highlights the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children in this age group from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Demography, Social structure, Individual and family studiesyj2293, mme2130, dcs45National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBasic Facts about Low-income Children, Children under 18 Years, 2012http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:173068
Jiang, Yang; Ekono, Mercedes M.; Skinner, Curtishttp://dx.doi.org/10.7916/D8930R8JWed, 16 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000Children under 18 years represent 23 percent of the population, but they comprise 34 percent of all people in poverty. Among all children, 45 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (22 percent) live in poor families. Being a child in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. Parental education and employment, race/ethnicity, and other factors are associated with children’s experience of economic insecurity. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of children and their parents. It highlights the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Demography, Social structure, Individual and family studiesyj2293, mme2130, dcs45National Center for Children in PovertyReportsLabor Migration and Its Impact on the Next Generationhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:170064
Yang, Lilyhttp://dx.doi.org/10.7916/D85H7D8ZMon, 10 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000China's modernization has transformed tens of millions of rural Chinese out of traditional farming life to seek fortunes in China's great cities. The decision process by which migrant workers determine whether their children should accompany their move is not only interesting in its own right, but it also provides the new evidence to further interpret results from previous studies. This paper details the factors that differentiate children who were left behind and children who migrated. The results of this paper indicate that aside from child and parental characteristics such as age, health, and parental migration status, to name just a few, educational policies in destination cities prove to be strongly correlated with the decision to bring children to cities.Economics, Individual and family studies, Social researchHelvidius GroupArticlesParental Smoking in the Vicinity of Children and Tobacco Control Policies in the European Regionhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:162932
Kovess, Viviane; Pilowsky, Daniel J.; Boyd, Anders; Pez, Ondine; Bitfoi, Adina; Carta, Mauro; Eke, Ceyda; Golitz, Dietmar; Kuijpers, Rowella; Lesinskiene, Sigita; Mihova, Zlatka; Otten, Roy; Susser, Ezra S.http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:20960Mon, 08 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000Objective: To ascertain patterns of parental smoking in the vicinity of children in Eastern and Western Europe and their relation to Tobacco Control Scale (TCS) scores. Methods: Data on parental smoking patterns were obtained from the School Child Mental Health Europe (SCMHE), a 2010 cross-sectional survey of 5141 school children aged 6 to 11 years and their parents in six countries: Germany, Netherlands, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey ranked by TCS into three level categories toward tobacco control policies. Results: A slightly higher proportion of Eastern compared to Western European mothers (42.4 vs. 35.1%) were currently smoking in but the difference was not statistically significant after adjusting for maternal age and maternal educational attainment. About a fifth (19.3%) and a tenth (10.0%) of Eastern and Western European mothers, respectively, smoked in the vicinity of their children, and the difference was significant even after adjustment for potential confounders (p less than 0.001). Parents with the highest educational attainment were significantly less likely to smoke in the vicinity of their children than those with the lowest attainment. After control of these covariates lax tobacco control policies, compared to intermediate policies, were associated with a 50% increase in the likelihood of maternal smoking in the vicinity of children adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.52 and 1.64. Among fathers, however, the relationship with paternal smoking and TCS seems more complex since strict policy increases the risk as well AOR = 1,40. Only one country, however belongs to the strict group. Significance: Tobacco control policies seem to have influenced maternal smoking behaviors overall to a limited degree and smoking in the vicinity of children to a much greater degree. Children living in European countries with lax tobacco control policies are more likely to be exposed to second hand smoking from maternal and paternal smoking.Public health, Behavioral sciences, Individual and family studiesdp14, ess8EpidemiologyArticlesThe House on Bayou Road: Atlantic Creole Networks in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centurieshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:162421
Force, Pierrehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:20769Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000This article discusses the coherence and relevance of the concept of "Atlantic creole" by examining the itineraries of two families, one white and one black, whose paths briefly crossed in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans in 1811. Through archival and genealogical research conducted in Louisiana, the southwest of France, Spain, and Cuba, the history of each family is reconstructed over the course of two centuries, with multiple crossings and re-crossings between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Matrimonial strategies and strategies of asset accumulation are examined carefully and compared over several generations, giving us a glimpse of how individual and group identities as well as one's positioning in the social hierarchy were constantly renegotiated. Some characters in each family are directly connected to major historical events: one fought on both sides of the Haitian Revolution; another was the editor of the first black daily in United States history. The study makes the case for the fundamental importance of family networks in Atlantic creole history. It also argues that the origin of Atlantic creole culture in coastal enclaves explains the coexistence of two opposite features: an unusual capacity for self-reinvention and a strong sense of local belonging.American history, Individual and family studiespf3History, French and Romance PhilologyArticlesMarriage and Hypogamy: The effects of Hyper/Hypogamy on Female Marital Happiness and Divorcehttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:162625
Rafetto, Anthony R.http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:20730Thu, 13 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000Since the 1980s a reverse gender gap has emerged in post-secondary completion, with women obtaining Bachelor’s degrees at increasingly higher rates than men. Many suggest this creates a smaller market of marriageable men. Using IPUMS census data for female respondents, I find that as relative education levels increase for women, educational hypogamy has not increased drastically but divorce rates have increased and marriage has become less common. I also find that educational hypogamy has a negative association with marital happiness, and also may have a negative association on the likelihood of getting divorced, while educational hypergamy seems to have a positive association. The effects of age on the model were not very pronounced. Work hypogamy, meanwhile, is associated with an increased likelihood of divorce. It is likely that work hypogamy among women, as it is much rarer than educational hypogamy, is still stigmatized in some way.Social structure, Individual and family studiesarr2181Quantitative Methods in the Social SciencesMaster's thesesInterracial Dating and Marriagehttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:161057
Jordan, Alysse D.http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:20290Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000With few notable exceptions, critical explorations of interracial romantic relationships have emerged predominantly from the social and behavioral sciences. From the social structuralist theories of sociologists such as Robert K. Merton to examinations of identity and interpersonal development by psychologists like Maria P.P. Root, the contributions of social science researchers to the body of literature has far surpassed that of other fields. This chapter is therefore intended to provide a review of the literature on the legal and social history of intermarriage in the United States by focusing on research in the areas of cultural anthropology, law and policy, psychology, sociology, and social work. Research that involves couples outside the United States has been excluded, as have biographical, fictional, and sensationalized accounts of interracial relationships.Individual and family studies, Sociology, Cultural anthropologyaj204Social Work Library, Libraries and Information ServicesBook chaptersWealth and Stratification Processeshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:160987
Spilerman, Seymourhttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:20265Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000This paper reviews current information on wealth trends, with particular attention to the role of household wealth in the stratification system. The first section considers the relevance of wealth for stratification processes and examines why an appreciation of household wealth has been slow to materialize in stratification research. Subsequent sections discuss aspects of the distribution of household wealth in the United States, the transmission of inequality across generations, and implications of a consideration of wealth for stratification theory and social policy. The concluding section conveys some observations about the need for developing models of consumption potential and living standards, akin to the socioeconomic attainment formulation, which incorporate measures of household wealth and the transmission of wealth.Sociology, Individual and family studies, Economicsss50SociologyArticlesThe Impact of Parental Wealth on Early Living Standards in Israelhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:160966
Spilerman, Seymourhttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:20257Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000This article examines the role of parental wealth as a determinant of the living standards of young adults in Israel. Living standards were examined in terms of four measures: home ownership, car ownership, schooling after marriage, and a subjective evaluation by the respondent. Israel is a strategic site for examining the interplay between parental wealth and living standards because of the particular organization of its housing market. The study focuses on the role of parental wealth in the early years of marriage because young couples in Israel have great financial need at that time but are liquidity constrained. The main finding is that, net of indicators of parental SES and a couple’s own income, parental wealth plays a substantial role in the living standards of young adults.Sociology, Individual and family studies, Economicsss50SociologyArticlesDual Punishment: Incarcerated Mothers and Their Childrenhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:156721
Smyth, Julie http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:19030Wed, 13 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000Children with incarcerated parents are among the most at-risk populations in the United States. The recent trend toward mass incarceration in the United States, especially of women, has harmful implications for children because often their primary caregiver becomes incarcerated. Research indicates that children with incarcerated mothers are at heightened risk for attachment disturbance, leading to depression, anxiety, and other trauma-related stress. Such children are often subject to frequent changing of caregivers within the foster care system, which exacerbates these problems. Child welfare legislation is becoming more sensitive to the needs of children of incarcerated parents, but less reliance on prisons and more alternatives to incarceration are needed in order to mitigate the harmful impact of maternal incarceration on children. This review will focus on the following: (1) a history of the mass incarceration of women; (2) emotional, psychological, and social risk factors for the children of incarcerated women; (3) the intended and unintended repercussions of child welfare legislation; and (4) a case study of an alternative to incarceration program.Social work, Individual and family studies, CriminologySocial WorkArticlesAdoptive Homes and the Meaning of Family: Implications for Gay and Lesbian Prospective Parentshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:156479
Zink, Alicia http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:19003Fri, 08 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000Restrictions on the adoption rights of gay men and lesbians limit their possibilities to become parents, even as thousands of children wait to be placed in adoptive families in the United States. This article will review past and current policy on gay and lesbian couple adoption in the United States. Policy changes are then suggested to expand the definition of adoptive families and to create non-discriminatory adoption guidelines to protect gay men and lesbians as legitimate families. Finally, the role of social workers and their responsibility under both the laws and systems of adoption protocol will be explored.Social work, Individual and family studies, Public policyage2001Social WorkArticlesThe Sibling Relationship in Foster Care: Policy Implicationshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:156482
Sheehan, Kate http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:19005Fri, 08 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000The majority of children placed into foster care are separated from their siblings upon entering the child welfare system. Some research suggests that siblings enjoy more stable home environments and fewer behavioral problems when placed together in care. The sibling relationship may provide stability, consistency, and unconditional positive regard to the children most at risk for poor outcomes such as anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and loss of identity. This paper argues that foster care and child welfare agencies must institute the changes necessary to make sibling relationships a priority. Recommendations for integrating the protection of sibling relationships in the placement process are proposed.Social work, Individual and family studies, Mental healthkms2123Social WorkArticlesADULT KOREAN INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTEES: A RESOURCE FOR ADOPTION PRACTICEhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:156265
McGinnis, Hollee A.http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:18948Wed, 06 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000The author shares a personal narrative of her efforts to establish an adult intercountry adoptee organization in New York City. These efforts coalesced with a national movement of adult intercountry adopted Koreans culminating in the Gathering of the First Generation of Adult Korean Adoptees, held in Washington, D.C. in 1999, and the Second Gathering in Oslo, Norway in 2001. The contribution of adult Korean adoptees to the field of intercountry and transracial adoption is discussed, with suggestions for how adult adopted persons can be utilized to enhance adoption practicesSocial work, Individual and family studiesSocial WorkArticlesThree Papers on the Black-White Mobility Gap in the United Stateshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:182564
Fox, Lianahttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:18907Mon, 04 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000Paper 1: Missing at Random? An Analysis of the Effect of Sample Selection on Intergenerational Earnings Elasticities by Race Utilizing the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, I assess the effect of sample selection bias on estimates of intergenerational earnings elasticities for white and black father-son pairs, regressing log child earnings on log parent earnings. Estimating four increasingly less selected models, I assess the robustness of estimates to alternative methods of handling sons who are missing data due to periods of unemployment or part-time employment. The results indicate that the assumption of exogenous selection into full-time employment significantly biases the estimates for blacks, although it does not have a large impact on estimates for whites. As a consequence, selection bias will understate the magnitude of the black-white mobility gap. The results also indicate that two methods substantially mitigate this selection bias: having a long panel, or imputing data in a short panel. Paper 2: Measuring the Black-White Mobility Gap: A Comparison of Datasets and Methods Chapter 3 utilizes both the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to analyze the magnitude and nature of black-white gaps in intergenerational earnings and income mobility in the United States. This chapter finds that relying on different datasets or measures will lead to different conclusions about the relative magnitudes of black versus white elasticities and correlations, but using directional mobility matrices consistently reveals a sizable mobility gap between black and white families, with low-income black families disproportionately trapped at the bottom of the income distribution and more advantaged black children more likely to lose that advantage in adulthood than similarly situated white children. I find the family income analyses to be most consistent and estimate the upward mobility gap as between 19.1 and 20.3 percentage points and the downward gap between -20.9 and -21.0. Additionally, I find that racial disparities are much greater among sons than daughters and that incarceration and being raised in a female-headed household have much larger impacts on the mobility prospects of blacks than whites. Paper 3: Can Parental Wealth Explain the Black-White Mobility Gap? Utilizing longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), this chapter examines the relationship between parental wealth and intergenerational income mobility for black and white families. I find that total parental wealth promotes upward mobility for low-income white families, but does not protect against downward mobility for white families from the top half of the income distribution. Conversely, I find that total parental wealth does not assist low-income black families while home ownership may have negative associations with the likelihood of upward mobility for these families. However, for black families from the top half of the income distribution home equity is protective against downward mobility suggesting a heterogeneous relationship between home ownership and mobility for black families.Individual and family studies, Public policy, Economics, Labor, Intergenerational mobility, Racelef2118Social WorkDissertationsRussian Mail-Order Brides in the U.S.: A Cultural Psychology Perspectivehttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:155792
Holway, Shaleihttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:18809Thu, 24 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000The early 21st century saw a surge in the news coverage of the murders of mail-order brides in the United States. When American news outlets fixated on these gruesome stories, a spotlight was directed at the mail-order bride industry and the domestic abuse that oftentimes results in these marriages. Authorities agree that domestic violence in these marriages is expected to be more common than in ‘normal’ marriages (Scholes). Nonetheless, mail-order marriages are less likely to end in divorce than marriages overall in the United States: divorce rates in mail-order marriages for which the courtship period lasted more than 4 months were between 35.8 and 41.3 percent when compared to the overall US divorce rate which is 48 percent (Statistics Solutions, Inc). Even more surprisingly, domestic abuse was not reported as a significant factor that contributed to divorce in mail-order marriages. In the wake of such terrible violence, many Americans asked why these women were willing to come to the United States in the first place and moreover why they seem willing to remain in abusive marriages rather than divorce. The answer to these questions is best answered by the field of cultural psychology because mail-order bride’s actions which may seem inexplicable to Americans are largely motivated by their cultural background. Thus, viewing the Russian mail-order bride phenomenon as a collision between American men’s and Russian women’s culturally-produced expectations of the marriage provides a richer understanding of why people willingly enter these marriages and additionally why domestic abuse is a frequent outcome of these arrangements. Understanding these marriages from the perspective of both the men and the women involved can help law makers institute policies that can better protect this population that is vulnerable to domestic violence.Psychology, Individual and family studiessmh2192Psychology (Barnard College)Undergraduate thesesBuilding a Competitive Future Right from the Start: How Paid Leave Strengthens 21st Century Familieshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:153217
Ochshorn, Susan; Skinner, Curtishttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14881Thu, 11 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000This paper provides a brief history of paid family leave policy, in the United States and abroad; synthesizes cutting-edge knowledge about paid leave and its impact on family and civic life; and concludes with a set of recommendations – for policymakers, researchers, public health and early childhood stakeholders, business leaders, and federal, state, and local education agencies – to guide the work going forward.Individual and family studiesdcs45National Center for Children in PovertyReportsPractices for Promoting Young Children's Learning in QRIS Standardshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:153220
Smith, Sheila; Robbins, Taylor A.; Stagman, Shannon M.; Kreader, J. Leehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14882Thu, 11 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000Quality Rating Improvement Systems (QRIS) have emerged as a central strategy in states' efforts to improve the quality of early care and education programs and the capacity of these programs to promote positive outcomes for children. Currently, 23 states have a statewide QRIS. At the heart of each QRIS is a set of standards that describe the requirements a center-based program or home-based early care and education setting must meet in order to qualify for a QRIS rating. Because children's school readiness is a key goal of QRIS, requirements concerning practices that can promote children's learning and development are of special interest. These requirements are typically found in standards' descriptions of acceptable curricula or learning activities, including methods for promoting the learning of children with special needs and children who are English language learners, as well as practices related to child assessment and parent involvement.Individual and family studiesss3793, tr2325, ss3770, jk821National Center for Children in PovertyReportsEarly Childhood Care and Education: Effects on Ethnic and Racial Gaps in School Readinesshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152438
Magnuson, Katherine A.; Waldfogel, Janehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14655Tue, 11 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000The authors examine black, white, and Hispanic children's differing experiences in early childhood care and education and explore links between these experiences and racial and ethnic gaps in school readiness. Children who attend center care or preschool programs enter school more ready to learn, but both the share of children enrolled in these programs and the quality of care they receive differ by race and ethnicity. Black children are more likely to attend preschool than white children, but may experience lower-quality care. Hispanic children are much less likely than white children to attend preschool. The types of preschool that children attend also differ. Both black and Hispanic children are more likely than white children to attend Head Start. Public funding of early childhood care and education, particularly Head Start, is already reducing ethnic and racial gaps in preschool attendance. The authors consider whether further increases in enrollment and improvements in quality would reduce school readiness gaps. They conclude that incremental changes in enrollment or quality will do little to narrow gaps. But substantial increases in Hispanic and black children's enrollment in preschool, alone or in combination with increases in preschool quality, have the potential to decrease school readiness gaps. Boosting enrollment of Hispanic children may be especially beneficial given their current low rates of enrollment. Policies that target low-income families (who are more likely to be black or Hispanic) also look promising. For example, making preschool enrollment universal for three- and four- year-old children in poverty and increasing the quality of care could close up to 20 percent of the black-white school readiness gap and up to 36 percent of the Hispanic-white gap.Individual and family studies, Early childhood educationjw205Social WorkArticlesInternational Policies Toward Parental Leave and Child Carehttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152441
Waldfogel, Janehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14656Tue, 11 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000The pleasures and pressures of parenting a newborn are universal, but the supports surrounding parents vary widely from country to country. In many nations, decades of attention to benefits and services for new parents offer lessons worthy of attention in this country. This article describes policies regarding parental leave, child care, and early childhood benefits here and in 10 industrial nations in North America and Europe. The sharpest contrast separates the United States from the other countries, although differences among the others also are instructive: The right to parental leave is new to American workers; it covers one-half of the private-sector workforce and is relatively short and unpaid. By contrast, other nations offer universal, paid leaves of 10 months or more. Child care assistance in Europe is usually provided through publicly funded programs, whereas the United States relies more on subsidies and tax credits to reimburse parents for part of their child care expenses. Nations vary in the emphasis they place on parental leave versus child care supports for families with children under age three. Each approach creates incentives that influence parents' decisions about employment and child care. Several European nations, seeking flexible solutions for parents, are testing "early childhood benefits" that can be used to supplement income or pay for private child care. Based on this review, the author urges that the United States adopt universal, paid parental leave of at least 10 months; help parents cover more child care costs; and improve the quality of child care. She finds policy packages that support different parental choices promising, because the right mix of leave and care will vary from family to family, and child to child.Individual and family studiesjw205Social WorkArticlesRethinking the Paradigm for Child Protectionhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152444
Waldfogel, Janehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14657Tue, 11 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000Mounting pressures on the nation's system for helping children who are abused and neglected have prompted new efforts to reform the child protective services (CPS) system to better protect children's safety. As this article explains, current reform efforts are focusing on the "front end" of the system, in which reports of abuse and neglect are screened and investigated, and caseworkers recommend whether and when to close a case, provide in-home services, or remove a child from a home. This article discusses the problems of the CPS system that are currently receiving attention, and it closely examines one proposal for reform—the community-based partnership for child protection. This approach emphasizes targeting investigations by CPS toward only high-risk families, building collaborative community networks that can serve lower-risk families, and providing a differentiated response to both high- and low-risk families that is tailored to each family's situation. Early experiences implementing these ideas in Missouri, Florida, and Iowa illustrate the promise and challenges of reform.Individual and family studiesjw205Social WorkArticlesUnderstanding the "Family Gap" in Pay for Women with Childrenhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152450
Waldfogel, Janehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14659Tue, 11 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000As the gender gap in pay between women and men has been narrowing, the "family gap" in pay between mothers and nonmothers has been widening. One reason may be the institutional structure in the United States, which has emphasized equal pay and opportunity policies but not family policies, in contrast to other countries that have implemented both. The authors now have evidence on the links between one such family policy and women's pay. Recent research suggests that maternity leave coverage, by raising women's retention after childbirth, also raises women's levels of work experience, job tenure, and pay.Individual and family studies, Economics, Laborjw205Social WorkArticlesParental Resources and Child Abuse and Neglecthttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152447
Paxson, Christina; Waldfogel, Janehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14658Tue, 11 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000A child's welfare is affected not only by the wealth of her parents, but also by the quality of care her parents provide. Physical abuse, neglect, and other forms of child maltreatment impose severe hardships on children and may adversely affect them as adults (Cathy Widom, 1989). We examine whether child maltreatment is affected by the socioeconomic circumstances of parents. Our hypothesis is that children are more likely to be maltreated if their parents have fewer resources. We use a broad conception of "resources." It encompasses not only income, but also parental time and the quality of parental time. For example, a low-income working single mother may be short on resources needed to parent not only because she earns a low income, but also because she may not have the physical or emotional reserves to care for her children properly at the end of the day. Likewise, an unemployed father may provide less than adequate parenting not only because his income has been reduced, but also because of the depression and loss of self-esteem that may accompany unemployment (Arthur Goldsniith et al., 1996). We use state-level panel data to analyze the impact that socioeconomic circumstances (in particular, parental work status and single parenthood) have on the incidence of child maltreatment. We find that socioeconomic circumstances do matter. States with higher fractions of children with absent fathers, and especially absent fathers and working mothers, have higher rates of child maltreatment. Nonworking fathers are also associated with higher rates of maltreatment.Individual and family studiesjw205Social WorkArticlesWork and Family: Introducing the Issuehttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152466
Waldfogel, Jane; McLanahan, Sarahttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14663Tue, 11 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000This issue of The Future of Children describes the challenges parents face in taking care of family responsibilities while also holding down a job and explores the implications of those challenges for child and family wellbeing. As children grow and develop, parents are the hub in a system of care to meet their needs, a system that includes extended family, preschools, schools, health care providers, community organizations, and others, but in which parents play the lead role. Often these same working parents have additional care responsibilities for other family members—in particular, the elderly—and are, for them too, the hub around which other caregivers, services, and programs revolve.Individual and family studiesjw205Social WorkArticlesReview of "Everybody's Children: Child Care as a Public Problem," by William T. Gormley, Jr.http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152460
Waldfogel, Janehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14662Tue, 11 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000William Gormley accomplishes three very important things in Everybody's Children: He makes a compelling case for government intervention in the child care market; he provides an analytic framework for thinking about that intervention; and he provides a wealth of information about the workings of that market. The result is a volume that is likely to be the definitive work of child care policy analysis for some time to come.Individual and family studies, Public policyjw205Social WorkReviewsThe Family Gap for Young Women in the United States and Britain: Can Maternity Leave Make a Difference?http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152399
Waldfogel, Janehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14643Mon, 10 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000In the United States and Britain, there is a "family gap" between the wages of mothers and other women. Differential returns to marital and parental status explain 40%–50% of the gender gap. Another 30%–40% is explained by women's lower levels of work experience and lower returns to experience. Taking advantage of "quasi experiments" in job‐protected maternity leave in the United States and Britain, this article finds that women who had leave coverage and returned to work after childbirth received a wage premium that offset the negative wage effects of children.Individual and family studies, Economics, Laborjw205Social WorkArticlesPublic Funding and Enrollment in Formal Child Care in the 1990shttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152411
Magnuson, Katherine A.; Meyers, Marcia K.; Waldfogel, Janehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14647Mon, 10 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000Although the share of all 3‐ and 4‐year‐old children enrolled in center‐based care and early education has grown steadily in recent decades, rates of enrollment for children from low‐income families still lag behind those for children from families with high incomes. During the 1990s, growing public funding for compensatory preschool education and means‐tested child‐care assistance had the potential to increase the availability of free or low‐cost formal child‐care arrangements and thus the attendance of low‐income children. This article analyzes repeated cross‐sectional data on formal child‐care attendance from the October Current Population Survey as well as data on state‐level funding. The results indicate that increases in public funding are positively associated with the probability that low‐income young children attended formal care. These results also suggest that gaps in formal care between low‐ and high‐income families would have widened in the absence of public investments.Early childhood education, Individual and family studies, Public policyjw205Social WorkArticlesWelfare Reform and Family Expenditures: How Are Single Mothers Adapting to the New Welfare and Work Regime?http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152408
Kaushal, Neeraj; Gao, Qin; Waldfogel, Janehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14646Mon, 10 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000This work studies the association between welfare reform, broadly defined to include an array of social policy changes affecting low‐income families in the 1990s, and expenditure patterns of poor single‐mother families. The findings suggest that welfare reform is not associated with any statistically significant change in total expenditures in families headed by low‐educated single mothers. However, patterns of expenditure changed. The reform policy is associated with an increase in spending on transportation and food away from home, as well as on adult clothing and footwear. In contrast, it is not related to changes in expenditures on child care or learning and enrichment activities. The pattern of results suggests that welfare reform has shifted family expenditures toward items that facilitate work outside the home but, at least so far, does not allow low‐income families to catch up with more advantaged families in expenditures on learning and enrichment.Economics, Individual and family studies, Public policynk464, jw205Social WorkArticlesParental Incarceration: Recent Trends and Implications for Child Welfarehttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152415
Johnson, Elizabeth I.; Waldfogel, Janehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14648Mon, 10 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000Using national survey data, we analyze 11-year trends in parental incarceration. Results indicate that children with incarcerated parents have become an increasingly large share of the foster care population since the mid-1980s and a notable share of U.S. children living with grandparent caregivers. Findings underscore the need to develop and implement specific child welfare and criminal justice policies for serving these families.Individual and family studiesjw205Social WorkArticlesChild Care in the Wake of Welfare Reform: The Impact of Government Subsidies on the Economic Well-Being of Single-Mother Familieshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152418
Meyers, Marcia K.; Han, Wen-Jui; Waldfogel, Jane; Garfinkel, Irwinhttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14649Mon, 10 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000Using microsimulation techniques to estimate the impact of welfare reform in New York, we find that 5 years after federal and state reforms child-care use and costs will rise substantially and families will bear most of these costs. When family incomes are adjusted for child-care costs, most single-mother families will continue to be poor even with greater earnings, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and food stamps. The distribution of child-care costs between government and families, and the implications for poverty, will depend on the extent to which government subsidizes the child-care costs of single mothers.Economics, Individual and family studiesjw205, ig3Social WorkArticlesWork, Welfare, and Child Maltreatmenthttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152396
Paxson, Christina; Waldfogel, Janehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14642Mon, 10 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000We examine how child maltreatment—including neglect, physical and sexual abuse, and other forms of maltreatment—is affected by parental economic circumstances. Using state‐level panel data on cases of maltreatment and numbers of children in foster care, we find that increases in the fractions of children with absent fathers and working mothers in a state are related to increases in many measures of maltreatment, as are increases in the share of families with two nonworking parents and those with incomes below 75% of the poverty line. Decreases in state welfare benefit levels are associated with increases in foster care placement.Individual and family studies, Economics, Laborjw205Social WorkArticlesPrevention and the Child Protection Systemhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152385
Waldfogel, Janehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14639Mon, 10 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000The nation's child protection system (CPS) has historically focused on preventing maltreatment in high-risk families, whose children have already been maltreated. But, as Jane Waldfogel explains, it has also begun developing prevention procedures for children at lower risk—those who are referred to CPS but whose cases do not meet the criteria for ongoing services. Preventive services delivered by CPS to high-risk families, says Waldfogel, typically include case management and supervision. The families may also receive one or more other preventive services, including individual and family counseling, respite care, parenting education, housing assistance, substance abuse treatment, child care, and home visits. Researchers generally find little evidence, however, that these services reduce the risk of subsequent maltreatment, although there is some promising evidence on the role of child care. Many families receive few services beyond periodic visits by usually overburdened caseworkers, and the services they do receive are often poor in quality. Preventive services for lower-risk families often focus on increasing parents' understanding of the developmental stages of childhood and on improving their child-rearing competencies. The evidence base on the effectiveness of these services remains thin. Most research focuses on home-visiting and parent education programs. Studies of home visiting have provided some promising evidence. Little is as yet known about the effects of parent education. Waldfogel concludes that researchers have much more to learn about what services CPS agencies should expand to do a better job of preventing maltreatment. Some families, especially those with mental health, substance abuse, and domestic violence problems, are at especially high risk, which suggests that more effective treatment services for such parents could help. Very young children, too, are at high risk, suggesting a potentially important role for child care—one area where the evidence base is reasonably strong in pointing to a potential preventive role. Although preventive services for the lower-risk cases not open for services with CPS are much more widespread today than in the past, analysts must explore what CPS agencies can do in this area too to ensure that they are delivering effective services.Individual and family studiesjw205Social WorkArticlesThe timing of mothers' employment after childbirthhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152388
Han, Wen-Jui; Ruhm , Christopher J.; Waldfogel, Jane; Washbrook, Elizabethhttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14640Mon, 10 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000According to data from a new nationally representative study of women who gave birth in 2001, the speed of a woman's return to work after the birth of a child was influenced by many factors, including family structure, education, age, birth history, and race/ethnicity, but the strongest factor was whether or not the woman had been working prior to the birth.Individual and family studieswh41, jw205Social WorkArticlesIncome and Child Developmenthttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152363
Berger, Lawrence M.; Paxson, Christina; Waldfogel, Janehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14630Fri, 07 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000We examine how income is associated with the home environments and the cognitive and behavioral development of pre-school children using data from a birth cohort study of children born at the end of the 20th century. Lower-income 3-year-old children are more likely than wealthier children to live in homes with inadequate physical environments and to have mothers who are more likely to be stressed, depressed, harsh and unresponsive. Additionally, low income children have lower PPVT scores, more mother-reported aggressive, withdrawn, and anxious behavior problems, and also more interviewer-reported problems with behavior, than more affluent children. A key policy question is whether increases in the incomes of poor families would result in improvements in children's outcomes, at least in part through improvements in the home environment. This question is difficult to answer using observational data. However, we argue that, even under the most generous interpretation of the associations we estimate, large income transfer programs would have relatively small effects on children's cognitive and behavioral outcomes.Individual and family studies, Developmental psychologyjw205Social WorkArticlesCaseworker-Perceived Caregiver Substance Abuse and Child Protective Services Outcomeshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152357
Berger, Lawrence M.; Slack, Kristen S.; Waldfogel, Jane; Bruch, Sarah K.http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14628Fri, 07 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000The authors used data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being to examine associations of child protective services (CPS) caseworkers' perceptions of caregiver substance abuse with their perceptions of the severity of risk and harm a child experienced as a result of alleged maltreatment, as well as with whether a family experienced a range of CPS outcomes. The outcomes included whether the family received services from CPS, was substantiated for maltreatment, experienced child removal, and was subject to a termination of parental rights (TPR) petition. The authors also compared the magnitude of the association between caseworker-perceived caregiver substance abuse and each outcome to that of the association between other maltreatment-related risk factors and each outcome. Findings suggest that, all else equal, caseworker-perceived caregiver substance abuse is associated with increased caseworker perceptions that children have experienced severe risk and harm and also with an increased probability of each of the CPS outcomes except TPR. Moreover, these associations are equal in magnitude or larger than those between the other risk factors and the outcomes. These findings imply that CPS decisions are heavily influenced by caseworker perceptions of caregiver substance abuse, regardless of the presence of other risk factors for child maltreatment.Individual and family studies, Developmental psychologyjw205Social WorkArticlesFragile Families and Child Wellbeinghttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152354
Waldfogel, Jane; Craigie, Terry-Ann; Brooks-Gunn, Jeannehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14627Fri, 07 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000Jane Waldfogel, Terry-Ann Craigie, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn review recent studies that use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to examine why children who grow up in single-mother and cohabiting families fare worse than children born into married-couple households. They also present findings from their own new research. Analysts have investigated five key pathways through which family structure might influence child well-being: parental resources, parental mental health, parental relationship quality, parenting quality, and father involvement. It is also important to consider the role of the selection of different types of men and women into different family types, as well as family stability. But analysts remain uncertain how each of these elements shapes children's outcomes. In addition to providing an overview of findings from other studies using FFCWS, Waldfogel, Craigie, and Brooks-Gunn report their own estimates of the effect of a consistently defined set of family structure and stability categories on cognitive, behavioral, and health outcomes of children in the FFCWS study at age five. The authors find that the links between fragile families and child outcomes are not uniform. Family instability, for example, seems to matter more than family structure for cognitive and health outcomes, whereas growing up with a single mother (whether that family structure is stable or unstable over time) seems to matter more than instability for behavior problems. Overall, their results are consistent with other research findings that children raised by stable single or cohabiting parents are at less risk than those raised by unstable single or cohabiting parents. The authors conclude by pointing to three types of policy reforms that could improve outcomes for children. The first is to reduce the share of children growing up in fragile families (for example, through reducing the rate of unwed births or promoting family stability among unwed parents). The second is to address the pathways that place such children at risk (for example, through boosting resources in single-parent homes or fostering father involvement in fragile families). The third is to address directly the risks these children face (for example, through high-quality early childhood education or home-visiting policies).Individual and family studies, Developmental psychologyjw205, jb224Human Development, Pediatrics, Social WorkArticlesWho spanks infants and toddlers? Evidence from the fragile families and child well-being studyhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152345
MacKenzie, Michael J.; Nicklas, Eric P.; Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne; Waldfogel, Janehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14624Fri, 07 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study (FFCW), a birth cohort study of children in 18 medium to large U.S. cities, to examine the prevalence and determinants of spanking among infants and toddlers (at mean age 14 months). Taking advantage of the large and diverse sample in FFCW, we conduct separate analyses for children of African American (N = 1710), Hispanic (N = 853), and white non-Hispanic (N = 812) mothers. Overall, about 15% of children are spanked at 12 months, with this share rising to 40% by 18 months and nearly 50% for children age 20 months or older. We find that there are marked differences in the use of spanking across the three racial/ethnic groups, with children of African American mothers more likely to be spanked and at a younger age. Moreover, while some predictors of spanking are seen across all three groups, others vary. Mothers who are young, who report more parental stress, or report their child has a more difficult temperament are more likely to spank across all three groups. However, being a boy increases the risk of spanking only within African American families. First-born children are at elevated risk of spanking to at least some extent in all groups, but much more so within Hispanic families. In addition, maternal employment is associated with a greater likelihood of spanking in Hispanic families. Although spanking at these young ages is not necessarily indicative of maltreatment, it may be a marker for families who are at elevated risk of maltreatment. As such, our findings, by highlighting some risk factors that are common across groups as well as some that are more important for particular groups, may have implications for child abuse prevention.Individual and family studiesmm3038, epn2102, jb224, jw205Human Development, Pediatrics, Social WorkArticlesFathers and Maternal Risk for Physical Child Abusehttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152366
Guterman, Neil B.; Lee, Yookyong; Lee, Shawna J.; Waldfogel, Jane; Rathouz, Paul J.http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14631Fri, 07 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000This study set out to examine father-related factors predicting maternal physical child abuse risk in a national birth cohort of 1,480 families. In-home and phone interviews were conducted with mothers when index children were 3 years old. Predictor variables included the mother–father relationship status; father demographic, economic, and psychosocial variables; and key background factors. Outcome variables included both observed and self-reported proxies of maternal physical child abuse risk. At the bivariate level, mothers married to fathers were at lower risk for most indicators of maternal physical child abuse. However, after accounting for specific fathering factors and controlling for background variables, multivariate analyses indicated that marriage washed out as a protective factor, and on two of three indicators was linked with greater maternal physical abuse risk. Regarding fathering factors linked with risk, fathers' higher educational attainment and their positive involvement with their children most discernibly predicted lower maternal physical child abuse risk. Fathers' economic factors played no observable role in mothers' risk for physical child maltreatment. Such multivariate findings suggest that marriage per se does not appear to be a protective factor for maternal physical child abuse and rather it may serve as a proxy for other father-related protective factors.Individual and family studiesjw205Social WorkArticlesFertility Timing of Unmarried and Married Mothers: Evidence on Variation Across U.S. Cities from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Studyhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152360
Curtis, Marah A.; Waldfogel, Janehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14629Fri, 07 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000In this paper, we examine the determinants of fertility timing of unmarried and married mothers using a rich new birth cohort study, the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, drawn from 20 medium and large U.S. cities. We find considerable variation in the time to next birth among comparable mothers who live in different cities. Some of this variation is explained by variation in labor markets, housing costs and availability, and welfare policies. City variation is particularly important for unmarried women who already have two or more children, whose fertility is more sensitive to these contextual variables than is the fertility of married women, or unmarried women with just one child.Individual and family studiesjw205Social WorkArticlesParental Leave Policies and Parents’ Employment and Leave-Takinghttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152372
Han, Wen-Jui; Ruhm, Christopher; Waldfogel, Janehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14633Fri, 07 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000We describe trends in maternal employment and leave-taking after birth of a newborn and analyze the extent to which these behaviors are influenced by parental leave policies. Data are from the June Current Population Survey (CPS) Fertility Supplements, merged with other months of the CPS, and cover the period 1987 to 1994. This time span is one during which parental leave legislation expanded at both the state and federal level. We also provide the first comprehensive examination of employment and leave-taking by fathers of infants. Our main finding is that leave expansions are associated with increased leave-taking by both mothers and fathers. The magnitudes of the changes are small in absolute terms but large relative to the baseline for men and much greater for college-educated or married mothers than for their less-educated or single counterparts.Individual and family studies, Economics, Laborwh41, jw205Social WorkArticlesFirst-year maternal employment and child outcomes: Differences across racial and ethnic groupshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152376
Berger, Lawrence M.; Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne; Paxson, Christina; Waldfogel, Janehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14634Fri, 07 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine associations between first-year maternal employment and child outcomes for 3-year-old White, Black, and Hispanic children (N = 1483). Results from OLS regressions and propensity score matching models indicate that first-year maternal employment is associated with lower vocabulary scores for White, but not Black or Hispanic, children and with elevated levels of behavior problems for Hispanic, but not White or Black, children. Factors such as type of child care, maternal depressive symptoms and stress, and parenting behaviors (including measures of discipline, nurturance, and provision of cognitively stimulating materials) do not mediate these associations between first-year maternal employment and children's outcomes or explain the differential associations across racial and ethnic groups, suggesting the need to look at other explanations for these associations, as well as the need for better measurement of parenting, especially mother–child interaction.Individual and family studiesjb224, jw205Human Development, Pediatrics, Social WorkArticlesMothers, Men, and Child Protective Services Involvementhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:152369
Berger, Lawrence M.; Paxson, Christina; Waldfogel, Janehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14632Fri, 07 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000This study used data on 2,297 families from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine whether Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement varies by maternal relationship status. Families were categorized according to whether the mother was living with a (male) partner or spouse, was involved in a dating relationship, or was not romantically involved. Families in which the mother was romantically involved were further delineated by whether her partner was the biological father of none, some, or all of the children in her household. Results indicated that families in which the mother was living with a man who was not the biological father of all children and those in which she was not romantically involved were significantly more likely to be contacted by CPS than those in which she was living with the biological father of all resident children. These findings withstood the inclusion of detailed controls for the mother's characteristics and behaviors and (in two-parent families) her partner's characteristics and behaviors, suggesting that they are not fully explained by observable social selection factors.Individual and family studiesjw205Social WorkArticlesThree-Generation Family Households and Child Wellbeinghttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:176600
Pilkauskas, Natasha Vanessahttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14501Thu, 23 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000The skills acquired in the first few years of life are critical in preparing children for school and for long term development. Families play a primary role in the development of cognitive and social skills as well as physical health. Changes in family structure that have occurred over the last several decades have resulted in fewer children growing up in a two parent married household; however, few children are raised by just one parent. Many children spend time in a three-generation family household, in which a grandparent, parent and child coreside. To date, little research has described the prevalence or correlates of three-generation family households or looked at the association between three-generation family coresidence and child wellbeing during early childhood. To fill this gap in the literature this dissertation was structured around three empirical chapters (papers) and the findings from those studies are described below. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 4,898), Chapter 2 investigates how the share, correlates, transition patterns, and duration of three-generation households vary by mother's relationship status at birth. Nine percent of married mothers, 17% of cohabiting mothers, and 45% of single mothers live in a three-generation family household at the time of the child's birth. Incidence over time is much higher and most common among single-mother households: Sixty percent live in a three-generation family household at least 1 wave. Economic need, culture, and generational needs are associated with living in a three-generation household; correlates vary by mother's relationship status. Three-generation family households are short lived, and transitions are frequent. Kin support through coresidence is an important source of support for families with young children and in particular families in which the parents are unwed at the time of their child's birth. Chapter 3 investigates to what extent stable and unstable three-generation family households (grandparent, parent, child) are associated with child health, socioemotional and academic wellbeing over the first three years of a child's life. Using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N=4,009) differences in the association by mother's relationship status and race/ethnicity are investigated. Results suggest stable three-generation family households are associated with child wellbeing whereas unstable or transitory three-generation households are not. Living in a stable three-generation family household is protective against child behavior problems for married families but detrimental for single or Black mothers. Stable three-generation coresidence is associated with higher PPVT scores but also higher odds of being overweight for some groups. Using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Birth Cohort (N~10,700), Chapter 4 investigates the associations between stable and unstable (or transitory) three-generation coresidence over the first five years of life and school readiness, and how those associations vary by race/ethnicity. With a few exceptions, the findings suggest that three-generation family coresidence is not associated with cognitive development, psychomotor development, or physical health. However, coresidence with a grandparent is associated with a higher likelihood of obesity across all race/ethnicities, as well as more externalizing behavior for Whites and less externalizing behavior for Hispanics. Although differences between stable and unstable coresidence are mostly insignificant, stability appears to matter for behavior, but in different ways for Black and Asian children. Black children who unstably coreside and Asian children who stably coreside with a grandparent experience more internalizing and less prosocial and positive learning behaviors.Sociology, Social work, Individual and family studiesnp2247Social WorkDissertationsMississippi Child and Family Health Study – Toplineshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:148112
Abramson, David M.; Garfield, Richard M.; Redlener, Irwin E.http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:13576Thu, 21 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000During the period of August 6 through August 26, 2006, the Columbia-led Mississippi Child & Family Health Study conducted an assessment among Mississippi residents displaced or heavily impacted by Hurricane Katrina. The purpose of the study was to gather information that could inform local, state, and federal policymakers about the health and social service needs of displaced and impacted populations living in transitional community-based settings, such as trailer parks, and in community settings that had been heavily damaged or destroyed by the hurricane. Using FEMA damage assessment maps, the team randomly sampled 150 census blocks across the three most heavily impacted counties along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Each of the census blocks contained between 1 – 80 housing units, with an average of 8 – 10 housing units. An advance team visited each of the census blocks and drew maps of all the housing "footprints," whether existing housing structures, or as in many cases, concrete slabs where houses had previously existed. The field team interviewed residents of 243 households in these community settings. Additionally, based on lists of trailer parks provided by FEMA, thirteen trailer parks were randomly selected, stratified by size and whether they were FEMA-developed parks or pre-existing commercial parks. The field team interviewed 333 residents in the selected parks. The respondents reported on their health status and health care needs, described their children's physical and mental health needs, and talked about the resources available to them as well as their plans for the future. The 576 households sampled are representative of approximately 14,000 households in the heavily impacted areas, encompassing over 37,000 individuals. The margin of error for most of the reported rates is + 4 points. Among households with children present, one child was randomly selected using a Kish sampling technique, and the adult respondent was asked about the child's health. Results reporting child-level data have been weighted proportional to the number of children in the household.Public health, Individual and family studiesdma3, rmg3, ir2110Population and Family Health, Pediatrics, National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Sociomedical SciencesReportsRent Burden, Housing Subsidies and the Well-being of Children and Youthhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:146767
Aratani, Yumiko; Chau, Michelle M.; Wight, Vanessa; Addy, Sophia D.http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:13178Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000Rent burden is defined as spending more than 30 percent of household income on rent. In 2009, more than half of renter-occupied households with children (54 percent) experienced rent burden. Between 2002 and 2009, the proportion of households with children affected by rent burden increased significantly. Although rates of rent burden had remained relatively stable for several years between 2002 and 2006, they began to increase from 2006 to 2009. With the majority of renter-occupied households with children spending a large proportion of their incomes on housing, this issue has important implications for children's well-being. For low-income families (family income under 200 percent of federal poverty threshold), who are more likely than more affluent families to rent than own housing and have fewer resources available to devote to rent, the experience of rent burden is particularly acute. Nearly 80 percent of lowincome households with children spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent. Other types of housing problems that low-income families face include crowded housing or inadequate housing due to physical conditions of buildings such as lack of complete plumbing for exclusive use, unvented heaters as the primary heating equipment, water leakage, open cracks or holes, or rodents. However, compared with rent burden, a relatively small proportion of households with children experience these issues. That is, about five to six percent of all households with children and about 11 to 14 percent of very low-income families (families with income less than 50 percent of the median income for the geographical area in which they lived) experience at least one of these problems. Thus, the current housing problem that affects the majority of households with children is rent burden.Social research, Individual and family studies, Economicsya61, mmc2106, vw2179, sda2114National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBasic Facts About Low-income Children, 2010: Children Under Age 3http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:146776
Addy, Sophia D.; Wight, Vanessahttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:13181Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000Children represent 24 percent of the population. Yet, they comprise 34 percent of all people in poverty. Among all children, 44 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (21 percent) live in poor families. Our very youngest children, infants and toddlers under age 3, appear to be particularly vulnerable, with 48 percent living in low-income families, including 25 percent living in poor families. Winding up in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. There are a range of factors associated with children's experiences of economic insecurity, including race/ethnicity and parents' educational attainment and employment. This fact sheet, which is an update to the series based on the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS), describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of children and their parents -- highlighting the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Individual and family studies, Demography, Social researchsda2114, vw2179National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBasic Facts About Low-income Children, 2010: Children Ages 6 Through 11http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:146782
Addy, Sophia D.; Wight, Vanessahttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:13183Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000Children represent 24 percent of the population. Yet, they comprise 34 percent of all people in poverty. Among all children, 44 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (21 percent) live in poor families. Our very youngest children, infants and toddlers under age 3, appear to be particularly vulnerable, with 48 percent living in low-income families, including 25 percent living in poor families. Winding up in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. There are a range of factors associated with children's experiences of economic insecurity, including race/ethnicity and parents' educational attainment and employment. This fact sheet, which is an update to the series based on the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS), describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of children and their parents -- highlighting the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Individual and family studies, Demography, Social researchsda2114, vw2179National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBasic Facts About Low-income Children, 2010: Children Under Age 6http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:146779
Addy, Sophia D.; Wight, Vanessahttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:13182Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000Children represent 24 percent of the population. Yet, they comprise 34 percent of all people in poverty. Among all children, 44 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (21 percent) live in poor families. Our very youngest children, infants and toddlers under age 3, appear to be particularly vulnerable, with 48 percent living in low-income families, including 25 percent living in poor families. Winding up in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. There are a range of factors associated with children's experiences of economic insecurity, including race/ethnicity and parents' educational attainment and employment. This fact sheet, which is an update to the series based on the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS), describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of children and their parents -- highlighting the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Individual and family studies, Demography, Social researchsda2114, vw2179National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBasic Facts About Low-income Children, 2010: Children Ages 12 Through 17http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:146785
Addy, Sophia D.; Wight, Vanessahttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:13184Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000Children represent 24 percent of the population. Yet, they comprise 34 percent of all people in poverty. Among all children, 44 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (21 percent) live in poor families. Our very youngest children, infants and toddlers under age 3, appear to be particularly vulnerable, with 48 percent living in low-income families, including 25 percent living in poor families. Winding up in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. There are a range of factors associated with children's experiences of economic insecurity, including race/ethnicity and parents' educational attainment and employment. This fact sheet, which is an update to the series based on the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS), describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of children and their parents -- highlighting the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Individual and family studies, Demography, Social researchsda2114, vw2179National Center for Children in PovertyReportsPaid Family Leave: Strengthening Families and Our Futurehttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:146796
Skinner, Curtis; Ochshorn, Susanhttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:13187Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000Life for 21st-century children and families is defined by rapid economic, social, and technological change, with profound implications for human and workforce development. The demographics of the American workforce bear little resemblance to those of past decades. In most families today, all adults are in the workforce and two-thirds of dual-earner couples work a combined total of more than 80 hours a week. Many more families are also headed by a single working parent, usually the mother. More than 55 percent of women with children under 3 years old are in the workforce. Among those employed, the number of hours of work has also increased, most noticeably among women. Despite this, women commonly retain primary caregiver responsibilities -- for both young children and elderly relatives. Unlike elsewhere in the industrialized world, our federal and state family and work policies have failed to keep pace with these demographic changes. In 2012, the United States remains the only industrialized nation without a national paid family leave program that supports workers who need time off to attend to important family needs, such as caring for a new baby or a sick child. This policy vacuum has created a generation of families in which parental work obligations increasingly compete with children's needs for parental time and energy. The conflict between job and family demands is especially acute for low-income parents, who often work in jobs that provide few family-support benefits. This scenario is shockingly common in the United States, where 44 percent of children live in low-income families and more than one child in five lives in poverty. To date, much of the focus of research and advocacy in the states and nation has been on the benefits of paid family leave to business – including improved employee retention and job satisfaction -- and workers' rights, in particular, gender equity. A growing body of research, however, suggests that paid family leave also has beneficial effects on child and parental physical and emotional health. Yet, the child and maternal health outcomes of paid family leave are largely absent from the national policy debate. This policy brief looks at the effects of maternal employment and parental leave policies on child health, child cognitive and emotional development, maternal health, and the health of parental relationships. It highlights compelling new arguments that strengthen the case for paid family leave, and includes a set of research-based recommendations to advance policy for this important social benefit.Individual and family studies, Public policydcs45National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBasic Facts About Low-income Children, 2010: Children Under Age 18http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:146788
Addy, Sophia D.; Wight, Vanessahttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:13185Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000Children represent 24 percent of the population. Yet, they comprise 34 percent of all people in poverty. Among all children, 44 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (21 percent) live in poor families. Our very youngest children, infants and toddlers under age 3, appear to be particularly vulnerable, with 48 percent living in low-income families, including 25 percent living in poor families. Winding up in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. There are a range of factors associated with children's experiences of economic insecurity, including race/ethnicity and parents' educational attainment and employment. This fact sheet, which is an update to the series based on the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS), describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of children and their parents -- highlighting the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Individual and family studies, Demography, Social researchsda2114, vw2179National Center for Children in PovertyReportsThe mediating role of family-work conflict on the relationship between family and work domain variables and employment trade-offshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:146456
Liberman, Benjamin Ezekielhttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:13079Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000Employment trade-offs are defined as the sacrifices that employees make in their job because of their family/dependent care responsibilities (Mennino & Brayfield, 2002). They represent an employee's decision to restrict their work responsibilities and devote their time and attention to their family when time and attention cannot be given to both their work and family responsibilities. Research on employment trade-offs has been primarily theoretical and qualitative, with the few empirical studies primarily examining demographic and attitudinal correlates to an employee's decision to participate in employment trade-offs without considering the mediating mechanisms between these variables and employment trade-offs. This dissertation extended the literature on employment trade-offs by examining family-work conflict as a mediator of the relationship between family and work domain variables and an employee's decision to engage in employment trade-offs among Federal government employees. This study also investigated the relationship of participating in employment trade-offs to workplace withdrawal behaviors, family-friendly benefit utilization, and turnover intentions. The family domain variables include dependent care responsibilities and childcare characteristics, while the work domain variables include organizational supports. The 2006 Federal Employee Dependent Care Survey (U. S. Office of Personnel Management, 2006) was analyzed and hypotheses were tested using both multiple regression and logistic regression analyses. The results showed that family-work conflict partially mediated the relationship between the variables of type of care responsibilities, perceived job schedule flexibility, childcare arrangement satisfaction, childcare quality, and childcare costs and employment trade-offs. Multigenerational caregiving responsibilities, number of dependents, and supervisor support were not related to family-work conflict and no mediation effect for family-work conflict was established between these variables and employment trade-offs. Analyses also found that family-work conflict was positively related to employment trade-offs, workplace withdrawal behaviors, and family-friendly benefit utilization. In addition, employment trade-offs were positively related to workplace withdrawal behaviors and family-friendly benefit utilization, suggesting that individuals do implement a variety of family adaptive strategies to manage competing work and family demands. Finally, employment trade-offs were found to be positively related to turnover intentions. Contributions to the work-family literature, implications for practice, future research directions, and limitations of the study are discussed.Occupational psychology, Management, Individual and family studiesbel2104Social-Organizational PsychologyDissertationsParental wealth and resource transfers: How they matter in France for home ownership and living standardshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:143972
Spilerman, Seymour; Wolff, François-Charleshttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:12430Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000The role played by parental wealth in facilitating the life chances and living standards of offspring is a topic of growing interest in stratification research. For working and middle class households much of their intervivos transfers to children is provided in the form of assistance with a home purchase. This paper examines the impact of parental wealth and transfers of wealth on several aspects of the homeownership decision — the timing of the purchase, the cost of the home, and the downpayment proportion, as well as living standards subsequent to the purchase. We utilize a unique data set from France which contains information on parental wealth and wealth transfers from both sets of parents of a couple. We correct for possible endogeneity of parental transfers and model the joint determination of the downpayment proportion and home value. The results make clear the complex pathways by which parental wealth influences the tenancy arrangements and living standards of offspring.Individual and family studiesss50SociologyArticlesFree Trade and Family Values: Kinship Networks and the Culture of Early American Capitalismhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:174263
Van, Rachel Tamarhttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10782Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000This study examines the international flow of ideas and goods in eighteenth and nineteenth century New England port towns through the experience of a Boston-based commercial network. It traces the evolution of the commercial network established by the intertwined Perkins, Forbes, and Sturgis families of Boston from its foundations in the Atlantic fur trade in the 1740s to the crises of succession in the early 1840s. The allied Perkins firms and families established one of the most successful American trading networks of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and as such it provides fertile ground for investigating mercantile strategies in early America. An analysis of the Perkins family's commercial network yields three core insights. First, the Perkinses illuminate the ways in which American mercantile strategies shaped global capitalism. The strategies and practices of American merchants and mariners contributed to a growing international critique of mercantilist principles and chartered trading monopolies. While the Perkinses did not consider themselves "free traders," British observers did. Their penchant for smuggling and seeking out niches of trade created by competing mercantilist trading companies meant that to critics of British mercantilist policies, American merchants had an unfair advantage that only the liberalization of trade policy could rectify. Following the Perkinses allows for a reconsideration of the Anglo-American relationship in the East Indies, especially China. For example, the special relationships the Perkinses established with the Wu family of Canton as well as the London-based Baring Brothers & Co. proved critical to their success in business. Yet these relationships developed out of the Perkinses' geopolitical position as Americans. Further, the project shows that family life, gendered ideals, and particular visions of the life cycle were central to how Americans came to terms with expanding trade and evolving markets. In the late eighteenth century, Americans began to exalt family as a sentimental unit whose central aims were personal fulfillment and the raising of future citizens. But this new ideology of family masked the institution's continued political and economic utility. Family has never been the promised "haven from the heartless world" of market perils; in fact, well into the nineteenth century it was the opposite: family was a core market institution used for protection from risk and speculation. Even as the Perkinses embraced the speculative potential of commerce and investment, familial and gendered ideals shaped how they understood profit, risk, and even what it meant to be a merchant. Finally, in recent years, scholars have integrated New England into the Atlantic World; I demonstrate the importance of New Englanders in shaping American involvement in Asia and the Pacific as well. The Pacific continues to be a central space of American empire and influence, from former colonies to trust territories. Its history merits a more robust place in American historical consciousness.American history, Economic history, Individual and family studiesrtv2101HistoryDissertationsPoor Children by Parents' Nativity: What Do We Know?http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135859
Wight, Vanessa; Chau, Michelle M.; Thampi, Kalyanihttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10746Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000Immigration in the United States has held a longstanding and transformative role in shaping the country's social and economic landscape. State and local policies have, likewise, responded to the changing presence and composition of immigrants in American society. Yet, significant gaps in policies that address the unique experience of children in immigrant families still remain. As the number of children of immigrant parents increases, policies that meet their needs in areas such as education, health care, and economic security will become necessary. Currently, 17.2 million children residing in the U.S. have a parent who is foreign-born and 4.2 million children of immigrant parents are poor. High poverty rates among children of immigrant parents, coupled with unique social and economic challenges, make them particularly disadvantaged when compared with children of native-born parents. This poses a significant policy challenge, as poverty and other material hardships can have deleterious effects on a child's long-term health and well-being. More importantly, as this brief suggests, children of immigrant parents experience poverty that is different from poor children of native-born parents. For example, poor children of immigrant parents are more likely than their native-born counterparts to live in households where at least one parent works full-time, year-round. Moreover, poor children of immigrant families are less likely to receive food stamps than poor children of native-born parents. These findings suggest that child poverty in immigrant families is not necessarily linked to joblessness; rather, it is more closely connected to low-wage work and barriers to valuable work supports. Examining the landscape of poverty among children of immigrant parents will help to identify policy interventions that support healthy development and long-term economic security. Research suggests that children not only differ by the nativity of their parents (native- versus foreign-born), but that children of immigrant parents are themselves a diverse population. Studies show that duration of stay within the U.S. plays a critical role in determining long-term health well-being among children of immigrant parents. This brief takes into consideration the diversity among children of foreign- born parents by not only considering whether parents were born in the U.S. or abroad, but by also considering how long foreign-born parents have resided in the U.S. This is an important distinction when examining differences among children by parents' nativity. Thus, the purpose of this brief is to examine differences among children of native-born parents, children of recent immigrant families, and children of established immigrant families across a range of socio-demographic characteristics. Promoting positive outcomes for young children in immigrant families requires a deeper understanding of the population itself. To this end, the brief provides a more nuanced look at poor children living with immigrant parents by expanding the definition of the immigrant experience to include not only parents' nativity but also their duration of stay in the U.S.Individual and family studies, Demographyvw2179, mmc2106, kt2373National Center for Children in PovertyReportsWhen Work Supports Don't Support Work: A Case for Parental Health Coverage in Mississippihttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135873
Thampi, Kalyanihttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10749Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000The recession has wreaked havoc on America's workforce, putting pressure on states to make difficult budgetary choices. As the perennial concern of balancing the budget takes hold of state government, recessionary spending cuts further jeopardize the health and economic security of families. An increasing number of Americans face a large gap between their resources and their expenses, and the safety net is splintering just when workers need it the most. Nowhere is this more evident than in Mississippi, where the unemployment rate in 2009 was 10 percent, significantly higher than the national unemployment rate. More troubling, however, is the precipitous rise in statewide child poverty rates since the start of the recession. In 2009, 30 percent of Mississippi's children lived in poor families versus 28 percent in 2008. In a sluggish economic environment, where costs are rising faster than wages, Mississippians struggle to cover basic needs, such as food, shelter, health care, and child care. For those who can find work, employment alone is not enough. The Family Resource simulator shows that even with full-time employment, low-wage workers in Mississippi cannot cover the cost of basic necessities without the help of work supports, such as food stamps, EITC, public health insurance, and child care subsidies. However, for many Mississippians, these work supports do not adequately support families as they move towards economic security. One of the biggest challenges facing Mississippians is the limited public health care provisions for parents. Medicaid is restrictively low with eligibility levels at 46 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. Outside of Medicaid, Mississippi has no state health insurance program for parents. Moreover, the continual decline of employer-sponsored health insurance and the prohibitive costs of private health insurance have led many Mississippians to forego health coverage altogether. More than 500,000 Mississippians went without health insurance in 2009. This situation has negative consequences not only for the health of parents, but for their family's economic security and well-being. This brief uses results from the Family Resource Simulator to analyze Mississippi's work support policies. It also identifies gaps in parental health insurance coverage and recommends policy reforms that could expand coverage among Mississippi's working parents.Individual and family studies, Public healthkt2373National Center for Children in PovertyReportsQuality in Family, Friend, and Neighbor Child Care Settingshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135870
Susman-Stillman, Amy; Banghart, Patti L.http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10748Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000Currently, more than 60 percent of children in the United States under the age of 5 are in some type of non-parental child care on a regular basis (Johnson, 2005) and care by family, friends, and neighbors (FFN care) is the most common form of nonparental child care in the nation (Maher & Joesch, 2005; Sonenstein, Gates, Schmidt, & Bolshun, 2002; Snyder, Adelman & Dore, 2005). Infants and toddlers, regardless of family income or household structure, are predominantly cared for by family, friends, and neighbors. One state study in Minnesota, for example, found that 78 percent of children under the age of 3 were in FFN care (Chase, 2005). National studies show that nearly half of all children (under the age of 6) spend time in family, friend, and neighbor care (Boushey & Wright, 2004), and nearly a quarter of school-age children are cared for by FFN caregivers (Capizzano, Tout, & Adams, 2000; Snyder & Adelman, 2004). Recognizing the widespread use of FFN care, a number of national and state agencies have invested public funds to support the use and strengthening of family, friend, and neighbor care. For instance, since 1988 parents can use federal child care subsidies (through the Child Care and Development Fund) to pay for care by a FFN caregiver, and currently nearly a quarter (22 percent) of all children who receive federal child care subsidies use FFN care (U.S. Child Care Bureau, 2009). Additionally, more than 25 percent of states now fund quality improvement initiatives specifically aimed at family, friend, and neighbor child care (Porter & Rivera, 2005). New understanding of how the quality of various early childhood settings affects child outcomes has led to increased attention regarding quality at the state and federal levels and prompted policymakers, researchers, and parents to ask more careful questions about the quality of care across settings, including FFN care. To date, much of the research on the quality of child care has explored the quality of care offered in licensed child care settings (that is child care centers and family child care homes). Given that FFN caregivers are generally exempt from state regulation (depending on the state), only need to meet basic health and safety requirements to receive CCDF payments for providing care, and therefore not required to meet defined program standards, the quality of the care children are receiving in FFN care is of primary importance. This review examines the current research on the quality of family, friend, and neighbor care.Individual and family studiesplb2001National Center for Children in PovertyReportsSNAP Take-up Among Immigrant Families with Childrenhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135847
Skinner, Curtishttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10743Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000Immigration is rapidly changing the face of young America. More than one child in four aged 18 years old or younger was either born abroad or lived with a foreign-born parent in 2009 and this ratio is expected to rise to one in three by the year 2020. The number of children in immigrant families nearly doubled between 1990 and 2007 compared to growth of only three percent in the number of children living with native-born parents. Immigrant families in the United States tend to be stable and hardworking. A higher percentage of immigrant-family children lives in two-parent families and a higher percentage lives with a parent who works full-time, compared to native-family children. Children of immigrants are more likely to be born healthier than children of native-born parents and are more likely to live in an extended family that can provide childcare and other household support. At least through middle school, children of immigrants tend to have higher educational aspirations, to spend more time working on homework and to perform better in school than those with native-born parents. At the same time, immigrant-family children are much more likely to experience economic deprivation than native-family children. In 2009, some 24 percent of children in immigrant families lived below the official poverty line and 51 percent below double the poverty line; the respective figures for children in native families were 18 and 38 percent. Although labor force participation and employment rates are very high among immigrant fathers, many work in low-wage jobs.5 Among immigrants, about 29 percent of children lived in a low-income working family in 2009 compared to 17 percent of native-family children. Research shows that the immigrant-family child poverty rate is negatively associated with parental education, English proficiency, length of U.S. residence, and citizenship status. In 2009, almost onequarter of all children in immigrant families lived in "linguistically isolated" families in which no household member over age 14 speaks the English language very well. Moreover, 53 percent of immigrant-family children lived with at least one parent who had not graduated from high school, compared to 44 percent of native-family children. Growing up under economic deprivation is associated with a host of negative outcomes for children in the United States. Children raised in poor families are more likely than other children to lack health insurance; suffer from chronic health problems, such as asthma and vision, hearing and speech problems; have higher incidences of depression, anxiety, and aggressive behavior; underperform on cognitive tests and in the classroom and achieve much lower rates of high school graduation and college attendance; and to remain poor as adults, often starting a new generation of poor families. For poor and low-income families with children in the United States, the social safety net of income and work supports provided by the federal, state and local governments offers critical assistance in meeting basic needs. But research shows that immigrant families eligible for some important benefits — such as housing assistance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP; formerly known as the food stamp program) — tend to access them at significantly lower rates than do native families. A wide range of hypotheses have been advanced to explain this relatively lower "take-up rate," including a lack of knowledge about the programs and their eligibility criteria, burdensome program enrollment and compliance requirements (high "transactions costs"), social stigma and cultural resistance, fear of government among both legal and undocumented immigrants, and fear of jeopardizing the family's residential status or eligibility for citizenship in the United States. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) sharply curtailed legal immigrants' eligibility for several important benefit programs, including SNAP, and although eligibility standards were subsequently liberalized for certain categories of immigrants, they remain complicated and not easily understood. This descriptive report identifies traits among low-income, immigrant families that may bear on SNAP participation rates and suggests ways in which state program administrators can improve their outreach and other administrative procedures to better reach these needy families. Drawing on household data from the 2009 American Community Survey and administrative data from the SNAP program, the analysis compares selected demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of immigrant families participating and not participating in the SNAP program with those of native families. The report examines federal and state efforts to improve take-up and concludes with policy recommendations for state program administrators to raise program participation among immigrant families with children.Individual and family studiesdcs45National Center for Children in PovertyReportsHealthy Kids and Strong Working Families: Improving Economic Security for North Dakota Families with Childrenhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135853
Shaffer, Jennifer L.http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10745Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000North Dakota is currently experiencing an economic boom that is bringing prosperity to the state and many of its citizens. The prosperity is not shared by all, however. Many workers helping to generate the economic boom do not feel its benefit and nearly one third of North Dakota families struggle to make ends meet. Most of these families work. Fully 85 percent of North Dakota's low-income families have at least one working parent. A good job is the route to economic security for many families. But what qualifies as a "good" job? A good job is one that pays more than the cost of basic expenses in the region; offers paid sick leave, retirement benefits and health insurance at a manageable cost; and, provides job security and opportunities for advancement. The jobs of low-income workers, almost by definition, do not meet these criteria. Concentrated in jobs and industries with low wages, few benefits, little security, and a scarcity of fulltime positions, low-income workers often struggle to afford basic necessities, much less get ahead. For many families in North Dakota and throughout the country, even full-time work does not provide adequate means. Work supports can help close the gap between low wages and the cost of basic necessities. Earned income tax credits, child care subsidies, public health insurance and other work support programs help reduce costs and increase income for working families. Such programs have proven to be effective in lifting people above poverty and improving attachment to work and job security for low-wage earners. Yet, despite the economic and social benefits of increasing income and supporting work, North Dakota's programs for low-income families do not always reinforce advancement in the workforce or provide adequate resources for workers. This brief uses the Family Resource Simulator and Basic Needs Budget Calculator, policy analysis tools developed by the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), to demonstrate the basic costs associated with living and working in North Dakota and illustrate the important role of work supports in helping low-income families make ends meet. The brief also assesses the efficacy of North Dakota's work support policies in helping families achieve economic security, with a focus on how a small adjustment to North Dakota Healthy Steps (State Children's Health Insurance program or SCHIP) eligibility could positively impact the health and finances of working families.Individual and family studiesjls2254National Center for Children in PovertyReportsMaking Work Pay in Montanahttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135886
Chau, Michelle M.http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10753Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000In Montana, 44 percent of children live in low-income families — defined as income below twice the federal poverty level (FPL). Despite 86 percent of these children having at least one parent who is employed, many of their families struggle to make ends meet on earnings alone. Work support benefits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, child care assistance, and public health insurance can help families close the gap between earnings and the cost of basic expenses. While work supports help parents get by on low wages, families who receive them often face difficulties getting ahead. Many encounter "benefit cliffs" where small increases in earnings lead to abrupt work support losses. As a result, families are often worse off after a small wage increase. To encourage employment as the primary path to economic security, a comprehensive work support system should accomplish two goals: Provide adequate family resources. If parents work full-time, their earnings combined with work supports should provide the resources necessary to cover basic family expenses. Reward progress in the workforce. When parents’ earnings increase, their families should always be better off Using results from NCCP’s Basic Needs Budget Calculator and Family Resource Simulator, this brief highlights findings on the effectiveness of work support policies in Montana.Individual and family studies, Economics, Labormmc2106National Center for Children in PovertyReportsWho are America's Poor Children? The Official Storyhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135841
Wight, Vanessa; Chau, Michelle M.; Aratani, Yumikohttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10741Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000Over 15 million American children live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level, which is $22,050 a year for a family of four.1 The number of children living in poverty increased by 33 percent between 2000 and 2009. There are 3.8 million more children living in poverty today than in 2000. Not only are these numbers troubling, the official poverty measure tells only part of the story. Research consistently shows that, on average, families need an income of about twice the federal poverty level to make ends meet.2 Children living in families with incomes below this level — for 2010, $44,100 for a family of four — are referred to as low income. Forty-two percent of the nation’s children — more than 31 million in 2009 — live in low-income families. Nonetheless, eligibility for many public benefits is based on the official poverty measure. This fact sheet describes some of the characteristics of American children who are considered poor by the official standard.Individual and family studiesvw2179, mmc2106, ya61National Center for Children in PovertyReportsQUALITYstarsNY: Field Test Evaluation Reporthttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135850
Stephens, Samuel A.; Kreader, J. Lee; Smith, Shelia; McCabe, Lisa A.http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10744Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000QUALITYstarsNY is New York State's Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS). The current QUALITYstarsNY standards were developed to apply to programs and providers under the regulation of one of New York's public agencies — the State Office of Children and Family Services, the State Department of Education, or the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Like all QRIS, QUALITYstarsNY includes standards for programs and providers based on what is known from research and best practices, procedures for monitoring and accountability, incentives and outreach to encourage participation by programs and providers, ongoing support to help them attain and sustain higher quality of care, and marketing and education with parents to help them use the system in considering care and early education options. QUALITYstarsNY has four categories of standards — Learning Environment; Family Engagement; Qualifications and Experience; and Leadership and Management. Participating programs and providers can be assigned up to 100 points total. The number of points earned will determine a site's placement in the five-star level system. Two sets of standards were available for the field test, one for center-based programs and one for family/group family child care homes. During the field test, slight modifications were made to accommodate the inclusion of early childhood programs in public schools. Thirteen (13) locations across New York State were designated as field test communities, reflecting the demographic and geographic diversity of the state.Individual and family studiesjk821, ss3793National Center for Children in PovertyReportsLinking Home-Based Child Care and State-Funded Preschool: The Community Connections Preschool Program (Illinois Action for Children): Evaluation Phase 1 — Implementation Studyhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135880
Forry, Nicole; Anderson, Rachel; Banghart, Patti L.; Zaslow, Martha; Kreader, J. Lee; Chrisler, Alisonhttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10751Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000The Community Connections preschool program (herein referred to as Community Connections) was developed to help prepare children in home-based child care for success in school and in life. It has three goals: (1) to make state prekindergarten classroom experiences available to children in home-based care, (2) to extend classroom learning experiences in the home-based care setting, and (3) to support infant and toddler development in participating providers' homes. In this model, state prekindergarten (Illinois "Preschool for All") classrooms provide half-day sessions four days per week for 3- and 4-year-old children coming from home-based child care. On the fifth day, the teachers visit children's care providers; delivering books and educational materials, modeling ways to extend curriculum activities, and discussing children's learning in the classroom. While preschoolers are in classrooms away from the home-based care setting, providers have precious time to focus on the needs of infants and toddlers in their care. Illinois Action for Children (herein referred to as IAFC) created the Community Connections program model in 2005 as Illinois was rapidly expanding its state prekindergarten program, which would ultimately change from serving exclusively at-risk children to become "Preschool for All." As the Preschool for All program grew, it became clear that large numbers of preschoolers in home-based care were being left out. Home-based care is the only option for many parents in low-wage jobs because those jobs tend to require non-traditional work hours — evenings, weekends, and changing shifts – when child care centers are closed. In Illinois, 67% of low-income single mothers with children under six work non-traditional hours (Illinois Action for Children, 2006). These mothers overwhelmingly choose home-based child care, usually provided by family, friends and neighbors. According to Illinois Child Care Assistance Program data, among families using the Child Care Assistance Program in Cook County, 58% have enrolled their children in home-based child care (22% in licensed homes and 36% in license-exempt Family, Friend and Neighbor care). While home-based child care is a significant community asset, preschool-age children tend to learn cognitive school readiness skills best in classroom settings (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network, 2002). In 2005, IAFC developed Community Connections to support home-based child care while adding a classroom-based experience to the children's day. This new program represents a third model through which state prekindergarten services are delivered in Illinois. The two most common models are part-day school-based programs and full-day programs delivered in conjunction with child care centers. As a third model, Community Connections has the potential to reach a large population of unserved children.Individual and family studies, Early childhood educationplb2001, jk821National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBuilding Strong Systems of Support for Young Children's Mental Health: Key Strategies for States and a Planning Toolhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135883
Smith, Sheila; Stagman, Shannon M.; Blank, Susan; Ong, Christine; McDow, Kendrahttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10752Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000Young children's mental health provides an essential foundation for early learning and development. In the early years, children's mental health can be seen in a wide range of behaviors that promote engagement in social relationships and learning. An infant who joyfully participates in "conversation" with parents is acquiring a capacity for strong social relationships while learning language and the patterns of communication. A toddler shows positive mental health by actively investigating her environment while gaining new cognitive and motor skills during play and exploration. A preschooler who helps his friend build a robot, shares his favorite markers, and rebuilds his block tower after it tumbles is learning social and problem-solving skills that will fuel learning in preschool and beyond. In sum, young children's "mental health" refers to emotional wellbeing and positive social development from birth through age 5. Young children with mental health problems miss out on developmental experiences that promote early learning. The behavior problems of some children result in actual expulsion from early care and education settings. For other children, mental health problems and challenging behavior may limit positive engagement in learning by contributing to conflictual relationships with teachers and classmates. Young children experiencing sadness or anxiety may find it hard to fully participate in growth-promoting play and learning activities. At home, young children with problem behaviors may be caught in a cycle of negative interactions with parents that disrupt a nurturing parent-child relationship and further limit support for the child's healthy development. Recent estimates suggest that between nine and 14 percent of children under age experience emotional and behavioral problems. The prevalence of mental health problems is markedly higher for children in families facing economic hardship and other stressful circumstances, such as maternal depression. In the absence of interventions, mental health conditions that emerge in the early years tend to persist and interfere with healthy development and learning. State leaders increasingly recognize the critical link between young children's mental health and later social adjustment and success in school. In recent years, states have begun to develop new policies and programs that help establish supports for young children's mental health across a wide range of settings, including pediatric offices and community clinics, early childhood and home-visiting programs, and child welfare agencies. These efforts focus on promoting positive mental health, preventing potential mental health problems, and treating identified delays or difficulties in social-emotional development. Many states' efforts include the use of evidence-based models and training experiences for service providers to increase their knowledge and skills. Part I of this report describes key strategies that should be part of a comprehensive system of supports for young children's mental health and examples from states that are developing and implementing them. These strategies are: promoting early childhood mental health (ECMH) in home visiting and parenting programs; enhancing supports for ECMH in early care and education programs; screening parents for depression; screening children for social-emotional problems; developing a better-trained workforce to address the social-emotional needs of young children; using evidence-based practices and evaluation to promote effective ECMH programs; and supporting the well-being of exceptionally vulnerable children. Part II of this report presents a simple tool that state planners can use for two purposes: 1) to assess the current status of the state's ECMH supports; and 2) to plan for specific enhancements in the state's current system, including expansion of certain ECMH strategies, such as child screening or training for early childhood teachers, and improvements in the quality of interventions. Since the creation of strong systems of ECMH supports requires collaboration among multiple agencies and programs, this tool may be especially useful for Early Childhood Advisory Councils, Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems initiatives, and similar state-level planning entities that bring together leaders from different sectors.Individual and family studies, Mental healthss3793, ss3770National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBasic Facts About Low-income Children, 2009: Children Under Age 3http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135708
Chau, Michelle M.; Thampi, Kalyani; Wight, Vanessahttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10721Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000Children represent 25 percent of the population. Yet, they comprise 36 percent of all people in poverty. Among children, 42 percent live in low-income families and nearly one in every five live in poor families. Our very youngest children, infants and toddlers under age 3, appear to be particularly vulnerable with 46 percent living in low-income and 24 percent living in poor families. Winding up in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. There are significant factors related to children's experiences with economic insecurity, such as race/ethnicity and parents' education and employment. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of infants and toddlers and their parents — highlighting the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children in this age group from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Individual and family studiesmmc2106, kt2373, vw2179National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBasic Facts About Low-income Children, 2009: Children Aged 12 through 17http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135717
Chau, Michelle M.; Thampi, Kalyani; Wight, Vanessahttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10724Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000Children represent 25 percent of the population. Yet, they comprise 36 percent of all people in poverty. Among children, 42 percent live in low-income families and 21 percent live in poor families. Among our oldest children, adolescents aged 12 through 17, 38 percent live in low-income families and 17 percent live in poor families. Winding up in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. There are significant factors related to children's experiences with economic insecurity, such as race/ethnicity and parents' education and employment. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of adolescents and their parents, highlighting the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children in this age group from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Individual and family studiesmmc2106, kt2373, vw2179National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBasic Facts About Low-income Children, 2009: Children Aged 6 through 11http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135714
Chau, Michelle M.; Thampi, Kalyani; Wight, Vanessahttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10723Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000Children represent 25 percent of the population. Yet, they comprise 36 percent of all people in poverty. Among children, 42 percent live in low-income families and 21 percent live in poor families. Among children ages 6 through 11 in middle childhood, 42 percent live in low-income families and 20 percent live in poor families. Winding up in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. There are significant factors related to children's experiences with economic insecurity, such as race/ethnicity and parents' education and employment. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socioeconomic, and employment characteristics of children in middle childhood and their parents — highlighting the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children in this age group from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Individual and family studiesmmc2106, kt2373, vw2179National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBasic Facts About Low-income Children, 2009: Children Under Age 6http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135711
Chau, Michelle M.; Thampi, Kalyani; Wight, Vanessahttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10722Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000Children represent 25 percent of the population. Yet, they comprise 36 percent of all people in poverty. Among children, 42 percent live in low-income families and nearly one in every five live in poor families. Young children under age 6 appear to be particularly vulnerable with 46 percent living in low-income and 24 percent living in poor families. Winding up in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. There are significant factors related to children's experiences with economic insecurity, such as race/ethnicity and parents' education and employment. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socioeconomic, and geographic characteristics of young children and their parents — highlighting the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children in this age group from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Individual and family studiesmmc2106, kt2373, vw2179National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBasic Facts About Low-income Children, 2009: Children Under Age 18http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135720
Chau, Michelle M.; Thampi, Kalyani; Wight, Vanessahttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10725Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000Children represent 25 percent of the population. Yet, they comprise 36 percent of all people in poverty. Among children, 42 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five live in poor families. Winding up in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. There are significant factors related to children's experiences with economic insecurity, such as race/ethnicity and parents' education and employment. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of children and their parents — highlighting the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children from their less disadvantaged counterparts.Individual and family studiesmmc2106, kt2373, vw2179National Center for Children in PovertyReportsImproving Supports for Parents of Young Children: State-level Initiativeshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135684
Higgins, Louisa B.; Stagman, Shannon M.; Smith, Sheilahttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10718Thu, 14 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000Most states are working to strengthen supports for young children's health and development across the different systems that affect family and child wellbeing. Increasingly, efforts to support parenting are an important focus of this work. While states' strategies are varied, most strive to provide families with information and access to programs that help parents keep their children safe and healthy while nurturing their development and promoting their school readiness. These efforts make a great deal of sense in view of growing evidence that parents and young children can benefit in many ways from parent education, and that children in families experiencing economic hardship are at higher risk of poor health and educational outcomes in the absence of parenting supports. New federal funding for home-visiting programs, along with the cross-systems planning being carried out by states' Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (ECCS) initiatives and Early Childhood Advisory Councils, create new opportunities for states to strengthen supports for parents with young children. At the same time, this area of work is likely to pose special challenges for states. One challenge is the still limited evidence concerning effective programs. Another is that stakeholders may lack information about the full array of existing programs in their state and the extent to which these programs are meeting the needs of different types of families. States also face the complex task of identifying resources and opportunities in different systems that could be marshaled to strengthen parenting supports along the continuum from promotion to intervention. This issue brief presents information that states can use as they address these challenges and opportunities.Individual and family studies, Developmental psychologylbh2122, ss3770, ss3793National Center for Children in PovertyReportsAddressing the Mental Health Needs of Young Children in the Child Welfare System: What Every Policymaker Should Knowhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135687
Cooper, Janice L.; Banghart, Patti L.; Aratani, Yumikohttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10719Thu, 14 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000This issue brief explores what we currently know about the prevalence of young children (ages birth to 5) in the child welfare system, how the occurrence of maltreatment or neglect affects their development, and the services currently offered versus needed for these young children.Individual and family studies, Developmental psychologyjc90, plb2001, ya61National Center for Children in PovertyReportsEnglish Language Proficiency, Family Economic Security, and Child Developmenthttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135663
Skinner, Curtis; Wight, Vanessa; Aratani, Yumiko; Cooper, Janice L.; Thampi, Kalyanihttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10711Thu, 14 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000Individual and family studiesdcs45, vw2179, ya61, jc90, kt2373National Center for Children in PovertyReportsBasic Facts About Food Insecurity Among Children in the United States, 2008http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135678
Wight, Vanessa; Thampi, Kalyanihttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10716Thu, 14 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000Individual and family studiesvw2179, kt2373National Center for Children in PovertyReportsWho Are America’s Poor Children? Examining Food Insecurity Among Children in the United Stateshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135681
Wight, Vanessa; Thampi, Kalyanihttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10717Thu, 14 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000Fourteen million children live in poor families (that is, families with income below the federal poverty level, which is $22,050 a year for a family of four in 2009). There is a wide body of research documenting the importance of family income for children’s health and well-being. Yet, research suggests that families with income twice the poverty threshold experience as many material hardships as poor families, such as food insecurity, inadequate housing, and insufficient health care. These findings are alarming and underscore the degree to which income-based measures of impoverishment mask experiences with material deprivation that are widespread and transcend the standard thresholds that define poverty. The focus of this report is on one type of material hardship — food insecurity — highlighting an important, but sometimes overlooked, dimension of impoverishment. This topic has taken on added significance recently as overall wealth in the United States is on the rise while record numbers of Americans are experiencing food insecurity, or the lack of consistent access to adequate food. Children exposed to food insecurity are of particular concern given the implications scarce food resources pose to children’s health and well-being. Using data from the 2008 Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement, this report examines what is known about food insecurity among children in the United States today, why this social problem warrants our attention, and the policy solutions that might help families minimize the degree to which they and their children experience this material hardship. In the first section, we define the concept and measurement of food insecurity and assess the proportion of households with children who are food insecure today and how that has changed over the last decade. Next we examine the population of households with food insecurity among children — assessing the causes and consequences associated with this material hardship. The report closes with a discussion of public policy approaches to relieve food insecurity.Individual and family studiesvw2179, kt2373National Center for Children in PovertyReportsA sort of homecoming : incarceration and the housing security of urban menhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:129673
Geller, Amanda B.; Curtis, Marah A.http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:9845Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000While individuals returning from prison face many barriers to successful re-entry, among the most serious are the challenges they face in securing housing. Housing has long been recognized as a prerequisite for stable employment, access to social services, and other aspects of individual and family functioning. The formerly incarcerated face several administrative and de facto restrictions on their housing options; however, little is known about the unique instabilities that they face. We use a longitudinal survey of urban families to examine housing insecurity among nearly 3,000 urban men, including over 1,000 with incarceration histories. We find that men recently incarcerated face greater housing insecurity, including both serious hardships such as homelessness, and precursors to homelessness such as residential turnover and relying on others for housing expenses. Their increased risk is tied both to diminished annual earnings and other factors, including, potentially, evictions from public housing supported by Federal "one-strike" policies.Individual and family studiesabg2108Columbia Population Research Center, Social WorkWorking papersBeyond absenteeism : father incarceration and child developmenthttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:129666
Geller, Amanda B.; Cooper, Carey E.; Garfinkel, Irwin; Schwartz-Soicher, Ofira; Mincy, Ronald B.http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:9843Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000High rates of incarceration among American men, coupled with high rates of fatherhood among men in prison, have motivated recent research on the effects of parental imprisonment on children's development. We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine the relationship between paternal incarceration and developmental outcomes for approximately 3,000 urban children. We estimate cross-sectional and longitudinal regression models that control not only for fathers' basic demographic characteristics and a rich set of potential confounders, but also for several measures of pre-incarceration child development and family fixed effects. We find significant increases in aggressive behaviors among children whose fathers are incarcerated, and some evidence of increased attention problems. The estimated effects of paternal incarceration are stronger than those of other forms of father absence, suggesting that children with incarcerated fathers may require specialized support from caretakers, teachers, and social service providers. The estimated effects are stronger for children who lived with their fathers prior to incarceration, but are also significant for children of nonresident fathers, suggesting that incarceration places children at risk through family hardships including and beyond parent-child separation.Criminology, Individual and family studiesabg2108, ig3, os2172, rm905Columbia Population Research Center, Social WorkWorking papersThe effects of maternity leave on children’s birth and infant health outcomes in the United Stateshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:129682
Rossin-Slater, Mayahttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:9848Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000This paper evaluates the impacts of unpaid maternity leave provisions of the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) on children's birth and infant health outcomes in the United States. My identification strategy uses variation in pre-FMLA maternity leave policies across states and variation in which firms are covered by FMLA provisions. Using Vital Statistics data and difference-in-difference-in-difference methodology, I find that maternity leave led to small increases in birth weight, decreases in the likelihood of a premature birth, and substantial decreases in infant mortality for children of college-educated and married mothers, who were most able to take advantage of unpaid leave. My results are robust to the inclusion of numerous controls for maternal, child, and county characteristics, state and year fixed effects, and state-year interactions, as well as across several different specifications.Individual and family studiesmr2856Economics, Columbia Population Research CenterWorking papersThe effect of paternal incarceration on material hardshiphttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:129670
Schwartz-Soicher, Ofira; Geller, Amanda B.; Garfinkel, Irwinhttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:9844Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000Widespread use of incarceration in the US, coupled with high rates of inmate fatherhood, has raised concerns for the wellbeing of more than two million affected children. The deleterious and long term effects of incarceration on men's financial and relationship stability are well-established. Incarceration also compromises family material wellbeing, and partners are at risk of hardship and stress, which may diminish capacity for positive parenting and harm children's development. However, little is known about the links between father incarceration and family material wellbeing. Using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing survey we examine the extent to which fathers' incarceration increases the material hardship experienced by their families. We find that incarceration indeed increases hardship for families, by both reducing household income and disrupting family relationships and routines. These findings underscore the need for criminal justice agencies and social service providers to help mitigate the risks associated with a father's incarceration.Criminology, Individual and family studiesos2172, abg2108, ig3Columbia Population Research Center, Social WorkWorking papersHousing insecurity among urban fathershttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:129676
Curtis, Marah A.; Geller, Amanda B.http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:9846Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000This article examines housing insecurity among an understudied population: urban fathers of young children. Housing security is of particular importance for vulnerable populations, and urban fathers, many of whom face unemployment and monitoring from the child support and criminal justice systems, often rely on this security to mitigate the socioeconomic challenges they face. By assessing the extent and type of housing insecurity affecting urban fathers, we identify a potentially serious source of disadvantage facing families more broadly. A year after the birth of a new child, fully a quarter of fathers reported significant housing insecurities with 3% experiencing homelessness. Results suggest that from 9-12% of fathers are doubling up, relying on others for living expenses, and moving more than once every year. Finally, only half of fathers had been able to maintain housing security over the three to four years since the focal child's birth.Individual and family studiesabg2108Columbia Population Research Center, Social WorkWorking papersIncarceration and support for children in fragile familieshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:129485
Geller, Amanda B.; Garfinkel, Irwin; Western, Brucehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:9790Wed, 12 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000High US incarceration rates have motivated recent research on the negative effects of imprisonment on later employment, earnings, and family relationships. Given the high rates of fatherhood among men in jails and prisons, a large number of children are placed at considerable risk when a parent is incarcerated. This paper examines one dimension of the economic risk faced by children of incarcerated fathers: the reduction in the financial support that they receive. We use a population-based sample of urban children to examine the effects of incarceration on this support. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal regression models indicate that men with incarceration histories are significantly less likely to contribute to their families and those that do contribute provide significantly less. These negative effects of incarceration on fathers’ financial support are due not only to diminished performance in the labor market by formerly incarcerated men, but also to their increased likelihood to live apart from their children. Men contribute far less through child support (formal or informal) than they do when they share their earnings within their household, suggesting that the destabilizing effects of incarceration on family relationships place children at significant economic disadvantage.Individual and family studiesabg2108, ig3Columbia Population Research Center, Social WorkWorking papersChild support enforcement and fathers' contributions to their nonmarital childrenhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:129482
Nepomnyaschy, Lenna; Garfinkel, Irwinhttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:9789Wed, 12 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000Research shows that stronger child support enforcement increases the amount of formal support received by children from their nonresident fathers. Yet, little is known about: 1) the informal cash and non-cash contributions that nonresident fathers make—especially to nonmarital children, 2) the effect of child support enforcement on these types of contributions, and 3) most importantly, the effect of child support enforcement on total (formal plus informal) child support contributions. Using data on unmarried parents from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we find that informal payments decline more rapidly than formal payments increase for the first 36 months, after which time this pattern flips. The flip suggests that public enforcement on average has positive effects on payments. States with stronger than average enforcement have larger than average increases in formal support and smaller decreases in informal support, resulting in a statistically insignificant increase in cash support. That the results differ substantially by when parents stopped cohabiting—with negative effects in the short-run and positive effects in the long-run—suggests that stronger child support enforcement may be efficacious in the long run.Individual and family studiesig3Columbia Population Research Center, Social WorkWorking papersUnmarried fathers' earnings trajectories: does partnership status matter?http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:129494
Garfinkel, Irwin; McLanahan, Sara S.; Meadows, Sarah O.; Mincy, Ronald B.http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:9793Wed, 12 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000Married men earn more than unmarried men. Previous research suggests that marriage itself "causes" some of the difference, but includes few men who fathered children out of wedlock. This paper asks whether increasing marriage (and possibly cohabitation) following a non-marital birth is likely to increase fathers' earnings and labor supply. The analyses are based on a new birth cohort study—the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study—which follows unmarried parents for the first five years after their child's birth. Results provide some support for the idea that increasing marriage will lead to increased fathers' earnings.Individual and family studiesig3, rm905Columbia Population Research Center, Social WorkWorking papersChild maltreatment and crime: new evidence from a sample of twinshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:129476
Currie, Janet M.; Tekin, Erdalhttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:9787Wed, 12 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000Child maltreatment is a major social problem. This study measures the effects of child maltreatment on crime using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). We focus on crime because it is one of the most costly potential outcomes of maltreatment. Our work addresses many limitations of the existing literature. First, we use a large national sample, and investigate different types of abuse in a similar framework. Second, we pay careful attention to controlling for possible confounding factors by comparing male twins and by controlling for differences in genetic endowments that have been linked to aggression and risk taking behaviors. We find that maltreatment greatly increases the probability of engaging in crime and that programs to reduce maltreatment would be cost-effective.Criminology, Individual and family studiesjc2663Economics, Columbia Population Research CenterWorking papersSaving Children or Blaming Parents? Lessons from Mandated Parenting Classeshttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:129058
Schaefer, Talihttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:9671Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000In this Article, Part I explores the characteristics of legally mandated parent education programs. The programs are generally short, educational interventions and their main goal is to improve children's well-being during and after a divorce by teaching parents how to better interact with children and with each other. This Part argues that the literature documents programs' scant success in achieving their stated goals. The Article then makes a brief interlude, in Part II, to contend that although mandatory parenting classes appeal to common sense, we ought to challenge such a reaction in order to allow for a critical analysis of the legislation. Drawing on previously unexplored legislative materials, Part III explores judges' and lawmakers' inflated estimation of the harm caused by divorce and analyzes its influence on the resulting legislation. This Part relies on substantial empirical work, gathering and analyzing detailed minutes and recordings of committee meetings, public hearings, and floor presentations and votes. The choice of states for this study was therefore influenced by the availability of these primary sources. Still, the information represents diverse states and the analysis shows patterns common to all of them. The primary source data is complemented by public reports, news reports and papers written by key players in the enactment process: judges, parent educators, and lawyers. Part IV.A shows that legislators perceive harm to children as arising from personal flaws or failures of divorcing parents, as evidenced by the parents' decision to divorce - specifically, parents' selfishness or self-involvement. This Part goes on to argue that legislators' interest in confronting divorcing parents with the results of their allegedly detrimental actions has severely undermined the potential of these mandates to achieve their declared goal of helping children. Part IV .B develops further the claim that parent education mandates downplay the extent to which social, economic and legal conditions shape parents' behavior after divorce, especially gender roles and gender inequality. To conclude, this Article argues that judges and lawmakers should see divorce as no different from other stressful life events. If we want interventions targeting individuals, we should focus them on helping parents make the transition from married to divorced, as rapidly and painlessly as possible by preparing them to the structural problems they are likely to face upon separation. More importantly, this Article suggests that lawmakers should focus on changing these structural conditions instead of denying them through parent-blaming.Law, Individual and family studiests2195LawArticlesDisposable Mothers: Paid In-Home Caretaking and the Regulation of Parenthoodhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:129061
Schaefer, Talihttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:9672Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000Recent custody decisions in the United States have treated paid in-home caretakers as substitutes for parents who are either unavailable or unable to care for their children. They have created a legal category of "nanny" that detaches primary caretaking from the caretaker and attributes care provided by in-home caretakers to paying parents. This category fits well with the legal regime of parental exclusivity, which promotes a nuclear family model, and with cultural norms that encourage parents to utilize intensive, development-focused childrearing methods. This Article argues that this new approach rests on flawed and potentially harmful assumptions about parenting and caretaking. Detaching the care from the caretaker is artificial and contradicts the well-established judicial and legislative view that performing hands-on caretaking tasks over time creates a parent-child bond. Attributing paid caretakers' labor to hiring parents is unjust: it devalues care work, renders paid caretakers disposable, and places the majority of parents, who cannot afford in-home caretaking, in a disadvantageous position. Furthermore, it endangers the feminist effort to promote policies that allow women to better combine motherhood with workforce participation. This Article urges readers to rethink conventional understandings of parenting and caretaking and to recognize the price that the current legal approach exacts -- and who pays it.Law, Individual and family studiests2195LawArticlesTransfers from Migrants to Their Children: Evidence That Altruism and Cultural Factors Matterhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:129032
Wolff, François-Charles; Spilerman, Seymour; Attias-Donfut, Claudinehttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:9664Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000This paper focuses on the determinants of financial inter vivos transfers by migrants living in France in 2003 to their adult children. From a theoretical viewpoint, such transfers may be explained either by altruism or by exchange. While parents would direct their assistance to their less well off children under altruism, support should be channeled to children who live nearby their parents under the exchange motive. We assess the relevance of these two motives using the French PRI survey. Unequal sharing is frequently observed and children are more likely to receive financial transfers when they are in poor circumstance, but not necessarily when living in proximity to parents. We also emphasize the role of cultural factors as determinants of the parental allocation among children. Muslim parents, in particular, are more likely to make transfers to sons than to daughters.Economics, Individual and family studies, Social researchss50Sociology, Institute for Social and Economic Research and PolicyWorking papersImpact on Children and Families of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Preliminary Findings of the Coastal Population Impact Studyhttp://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:128195
Abramson, David M.; Redlener, Irwin E.; Stehling-Ariza, Tasha; Sury, Jonathan; Banister, Akilah N.; Park, Yoon Soohttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:9416Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000Although the ruptured Deepwater Horizon oil well was capped on July 15, 2010, an estimated 3 to 5 million barrels of oil spilled in to the Gulf of Mexico over a three-month period. Several surveys prior to the capping of the well documented the concerns and immediate effects of the oil spill on coastal residents. One report by a team of LSU sociologists highlighted the anxiety caused by the oil spill - nearly 60% of the 925 coastal Louisiana residents interviewed said they were almost constantly worried by the oil spill. As the "acute phase" of the oil spill transitions to a longer-term "chronic phase," researchers at Columbia University's National Center for Disaster Preparedness, in collaboration with the Children's Health Fund and The Marist Poll, interviewed over 1,200 coastal residents in Louisiana and Mississippi, with a particular focus on the short- and potential long-term impact of the disaster on children. This study was informed by work the researchers have done post-Katrina as part of the Gulf Coast Child & Family Health Study, which has documented the enduring effects on impacted populations in the two states, particularly children.Public health, Individual and family studiesdma3, ir2110, nas51, jjs2154, anb2121, ysp2102Population and Family Health, Pediatrics, National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Sociomedical SciencesReports